Giving Up Expectations

Rev. Debbie Cato
Genesis 12:1-5 and John 3:1-17
Fairfield Community Church
May 26, 2024 

Living God,  help us to hear your Holy Word with open hearts so that we may truly understand; and, understanding, that we may believe; and, believing, that we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do. Through Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

 

Giving up Expectations

 

 

When I was in the first grade, I decided I was going to be a teacher.  Mrs. Rumpel – the 3^rd grade teacher at my very small school had taken a liking to me when I was moved from 1^st grade to 3^rd grade for reading.  She had a daughter my age and she would have me over to her house.  Her daughter and I would play school.  I was always the teacher.  I would also play school at home – by myself.  I was going to be a teacher.  I was also going to be a concert pianist and I would practice for hours and hours in the hot Minnesota summers.  Those were my expectations for my life.

When my oldest daughter Jessica was 7 or 8 years old, she planned her wedding. Everything was planned and written out for the day when she would get married.  Everything would be perfect.  Just the way she expected it to be.  That wedding, planned to include colors and songs was Jessica’s expectation.

My daughter Tracy was going to be a farmer’s wife and have lots of children.  That was Tracy’s expectation for her life.

You may not have planned your wedding down to the minute detail at the age of 7 like my daughter did or known without a doubt how your working life would look, or planned a simple, happy life like Tracy.  But I would guess that each of you had expectations of what your life would be like.  I would also guess that not too many of us would say that our lives turned out exactly like we expected they would.  I for one never expected to be in a violent marriage and I certainly never expected that I would be a single parent.

We have expectations for our work, our significant others, and our children.  We have expectations about how life should be.  Whether we are 7 years old or 70 years old, we all have expectations.

Look at Abram.  Abram and his wife Sarai lived in Haran.  Abram was 75 years old.  He had done well for himself; he was a wealthy man.  Abram had many possessions, large herds, and many people who worked for him.  At 75 years old, Abram probably expected that he would live out his life with his wife Sarai, at their home in Haran, doing what he had always done.  They had no children because Sarai was barren, but his nephew Lot was part of their family and Abram’s life was full.

And then suddenly, one day, the completely unexpected happened to Abram.  God spoke to him and said, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.  ²I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Not what Abram expected.  I doubt it was what Sarai expected.  She was 75 years old too!  I’m sure there were some conversations between Abram and his wife about this change but, they let go of their expectations for their lives; expectations for their future and Abram – soon to be renamed Abraham by God, followed God's call to leave his homeland and travel to the place God promised his descendants, even though he didn't know how it would all work out.

Throughout Scripture we see people whose expectations get thrown in their face.  I wonder if Moses expected the journey out of Egypt would take 40 years?  I wonder if the Israelites expected to see their beloved City destroyed?  Time after time. I wonder if teenaged Mary expected to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Christ Child; the Messiah?

And then there’s this man Nicodemus whom we are introduced to today in the Gospel of John.  Nicodemus is a Pharisee.  Think about what you know about the Pharisees.  They weren’t fans of Jesus, were they?  And yet, Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees is intrigued with Jesus.  He wants to spend time with Jesus.  Nicodemus is a man who wants to know more.  He is a man of standing and authority – a member of the ruling council. 

Nicodemus has a big stake in the established religious order that Jesus so openly and drastically attacks by his actions and his words.  And yet, Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he wants to know more.  He risks a lot to come see Jesus.  He comes at night so that no one would see him.  Nicodemus is curious, but cautious. 

Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and he says, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."   He has expectations of who this Jesus is and what Jesus will say.

But Jesus doesn’t reply the way Nicodemus expects he will.  Jesus doesn’t praise Nicodemus for believing in the signs that Jesus brings – for believing that Jesus is a teacher sent from God.  Jesus doesn’t engage Nicodemus in a religious discussion as the Pharisees might have in the temple.  Instead, Jesus’ response completely bewilders Nicodemus.  Nicodemus doesn’t understand.  It’s outside his sphere of understanding.  It doesn’t meet his expectations.  Three times Nicodemus says, “How can this be?”

Jesus says, “I’m not what you expect, Nicodemus.  I’m about new life.  I’m about God doing a new thing.  God has acted out of love – reaching out to the unlovely and the unlovable.  God’s love is known to you because he has given me; His only Son so that whoever believes might have life.  It’s not what you expect.” 

Nicodemus expects something from Jesus but instead, Jesus tells him something unexpected; something new.  Jesus tells him about grace.  Grace isn’t something that the Pharisees and the keepers of the law know about. 

It’s no wonder that when Nicodemus is talking to Jesus, he has a hard time understanding. He’s used to thinking in terms of religious laws.  Grace is something entirely new.  It’s nothing he’s heard of before.  It’s outside his range of understanding.  It doesn’t meet his expectations.  It’s better!

I propose to you that perhaps God has something planned for your lives, this community, this church –for our ministry together than what you… or I, might be expecting.  Maybe we need to give up our expectations and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and in this church – Christ’s church to do the work that God has planned in the way that God has planned to do it. 

Of course, the risk is that it won’t meet your expectations; that it won’t meet my expectations.  It will be different.  But just like God’s plans for Abram when he gave up his expectations; just like Mary when she gave up her expectations, and just like Nicodemus when he gave up his expectations and learned about God’s grace and love for the world; we may discover that God’s expectations are far greater and far grander for His Kingdom than ours can ever be.

Sometimes we just can’t know what’s going on or what’s coming next. God doesn't guarantee any future circumstances or uninterrupted prosperity, but we can trust that God will be with us through whatever circumstances we face.  We can trust that God will work with us to make the best result out of even the most hopeless of places.

So, here’s the challenge - can we let go of our expectations and allow God to work in us and through us?  The results may very well be better than we expected.  Amen.

 

It's a Surprise Party!

Rev. Debbie Cato
Acts 2:1-21
Fairfield Community Church
May 28, 2023

All-knowing God, With clear minds and focused hearts, may we hear the words of scripture today and be receptive to the way in which God speaks to us through this good word.  In God’s holy name we pray, amen

 

It’s a Surprise Party!

 

I know I’ve told you this but I’m telling it again because I love it.  I think it’s the perfect Pentecost story.  In a church I attended in Tacoma, every Pentecost Sunday people stand at different times during the scripture reading and start reading it in their native language.  French, Spanish, various African dialects, Chinese, Vietnamese.  They would stand up wherever they were seated in the sanctuary and start speaking; reading the Acts passage in their own language.  Blending their voices with the other people speaking in their language. All these voices in all these different languages.  Voices coming from different parts of the sanctuary.  It became very chaotic.  Very loud.  It was beautiful.  It always gave me goosebumps. 

It was reminiscent of that Pentecost day in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago when Jesus’ followers were all standing in one place.  It was during the Feast of Weeks; the festival of first fruits when devout Jews from every nation were present. Suddenly the Holy Spirit appeared like a violent wind and tongues of fire came down.  Then Jesus’ followers began speaking in languages that they had never been able to speak before yet those from other nations were able to understand what they were saying!

Imagine what that must have been like!  Suddenly speaking a language you didn’t know! Clearly it was power from the Spirit sent by God.  Imagine the loud sound of the violent wind; imagine seeing tongues of fire coming down from heaven.  The Holy Spirit did not arrive quietly!

It always gives me chills.  A sense of what it may have been like on that first Pentecost.  It’s good for us to get chills.  To realize the sheer magnitude of God giving each one of us His Holy Spirit.  It’s usually not as dramatic as that first Pentecost but it does not diminish the power of the Spirit.  Do we even realize or appreciate the power God’s very Spirit gives us?  We are filled with God’s Spirit.  That same Spirit that filled the people 2,000 years ago. Let’s sit with that a moment.

Like those first disciples on the day of Pentecost, God is constantly calling us to new and uncharted territory. Fifty days after Passover, fifty days after Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, Jews from every nation gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, commemorating the harvest and “the first fruits of their labor”. This festival scene in Acts 2 is transformed by the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit, with the sound of a violent, rushing wind and tongues of fire lapping the air. Jesus told them this would happen saying, “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 end of the earth”. But who could really be prepared for such a miracle? Such a transformation?

The miracle of Pentecost includes the Holy Spirit giving people from “every nation under heaven” the ability to speak new languages, to hear and understand each other. Because of this gift of God’s Holy Spirit, unity amidst diversity was discovered.  Although people were from different nations and different cultures, suddenly they could communicate and unity was found amongst one another.  People from all nations could hear and understand the Good News.  This was a transformation so profound, some cast it as unbelievable, dismissing those blessed as a bunch of crazy drunks. But they were not drunk.  The Holy Spirit filled them with gifts and abilities and joy they had not experienced before.  Gifts and abilities and joy they could not contain.

A prime example was Peter.  Peter who tended to put his foot in his mouth.  Peter who denied knowing Jesus three times. This very Peter stood up and boldly recited the words of Joel, emphasizing how the Spirit gives ordinary people extraordinary abilities.  Abilities to prophesy; to have visions, and discern dreams.

Too often, fear and self-doubt hold us back from all God’s Spirit can accomplish through us.  We don’t allow the Spirit to use her power.  I think we are often afraid of the Spirit.  Afraid of how the Spirit might change and transform us if we allow it.

I wonder what would change if we trusted the Spirit’s power to transform? Disillusionment is easy — we mourn the church’s decline.  We grow frustrated over our failure to create positive change.  We lose hope in the face of overwhelming problems.

But what would you try if you truly believed the Spirit fills you and gives you the ability you need for the work to which God calls? Would you speak against the harassment you witness?  The injustice you see but have been too afraid to say anything about? Would you write an op-ed for your local newspaper on behalf of the poor or marginalized? Would you run for office? Volunteer for our outreach projects? Invite people to church?

What would we do as the church if we trusted the Spirit to fill us, use us, and give us abilities that rise to the call of God’s work? Would we knock on the doors of our neighbors, listen to their needs, then do something to meet those needs? Would we worry less about our financial safety net, and risk investing our money in new things to solve big problems we feel God is leading us to solve?

We think too small when we measure God’s call by our human capacity. We can do more and be more than we imagine through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.

This Pentecost passage is all-inclusive. The Spirit is poured out on “all flesh” and “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” God’s Spirit can transform ordinary people, like you and me into extraordinary servants of Christ.  God’s Spirit can and will transform.

Like the song says, “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Melt us. Mold us. Fill us. Use us.” With the ability given to us by the Holy Spirit, let’s dream big dreams — and step into action, trusting God for the all that we need.  Amen.

The Next Act

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 24:44-51 and Acts 1:1-11
Fairfield Community Church
May 12, 2-24-  Ascension Sunday

Let us pray:  Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. Make us hungry for this heavenly food, that it may nourish us today in the ways of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen.

 

 

The Next Act

 

 

This morning, I’m going to be reading the last few verses in The Gospel of Luke and the first few verses from the Book of Acts.  Both the Gospel of Luke and The Book of Acts were written by Luke. Luke was probably a Gentile by birth – not a Jew.  He was well educated in Greek culture, a physician by profession, a companion of Paul at various times from his second missionary journey to his first imprisonment in Rome, and a loyal friend who remained with the apostle after others had deserted him. 

Luke addresses both his gospel and The Book of Acts to an individual named Theophilus whose name means “one who loves God.”   It is believed that Theophilus was a Roman official or at least of high position and wealth.  He was possibly Luke’s patron, responsible for seeing that the writings were copied and distributed.  So essentially, Theophilus was Luke’s publisher and a gentile who loved the Lord.

Often, we talk about The Book of Acts as Luke’s volume 2 to his gospel.  Luke’s Gospel, written to a Gentile audience is filled with factual accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry and shows the place of Gentile Christians in God’s kingdom.   Luke wrote his gospel to strengthen the faith of all believers and to answer the attacks of unbelievers.  Volume 2 – The Book of Acts, begins where Luke’s Gospel ends – it is a historical account of Christian origins -  its congregations, and the persecution of early church and her leaders.  You might call it our birthday story.  We’ll read more of Acts next Sunday which is Pentecost Sunday.

Listen now for the Word of the Lord.

 Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances leave the disciples conflicted and confused.  They really aren’t sure what the resurrected Christ intends for them going forward.  They think he is going to stay with them.  They think things will go “back to normal.”  It is finally during Jesus’ departure that they get a glimpse of the glory that eternally shapes the Christian proclamation and sets them on a course that changes world history. 

In Luke-Acts, the ascending Christ extends a “blessing” to those watching him disappear.  “He leads them out as far as Bethany, lifts up his hands, and blesses them.  While blessing them, he withdraws from them and is carried up into heaven.”  With this gift of divine favor, Jesus becomes something for the disciples that he had never been before.  Returning to Jerusalem, they joyfully worship him and uninhibited they remain at the temple praising God.  No more fishing; no more fear of the authorities; no more hiding.

We are told that Jesus spends forty days after his resurrection teaching his followers about the reign of God.  Forty days reviewing everything he had taught them in the three years they spent together – reviewing what the kingdom of God is to look like - this time with their knowledge of His death and resurrection. Yet they still don’t fully understand. 

You may imagine that these followers, who have already demonstrated difficulty in understanding Jesus’ purpose among them, can use all the help they can get if their movement is to have any future at all.  You may also imagine that the turmoil in Jerusalem, along with the turmoil in their own lives from the events of Passover week, has not entirely subsided.  Though they are elated to have Jesus with them, they are still cautiously hiding in locked rooms, bags packed for the return trip to the relative quiet and safety of Galilee.  They want to go home.  But they also do not want to let go of Jesus.

Jesus instructs them to remain in Jerusalem, even though he is planning to leave them physically.  He has promised them the gift of His Spirit – a holy companion, if they can just hold on a little longer.  Their innate curiosity kicks in, though their question shows how much more they have to learn: “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  They continue to show shortsightedness; they cannot yet envision the big picture.  “Your vision is too small,” Jesus says.  “You are not ready for, nor do you need to know, the details of how God is operating here.  You need to get yourselves ready for the coming of the Spirit that will be the next leg of your journey on the Way.  It is enough for now.  It is all you can handle.”

They are to be Christ’s witnesses, beginning where they are, spreading the good news to the ends of the earth.  Before they can ask a follow-up question, before their very eyes, he ascends into the clouds and disappears from sight.  Again, we can imagine that they are dumbfounded; left standing on that hillside; their necks craning to see beyond the clouds; their mouths hanging open.  More miracles – angelic voices bring them back to reality: “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus…will come again in the same way you saw him go.”

Only after the ascension; only after Jesus is taken up into heaven and only after their peculiar experience with the absent and yet ever-present Lord, are their conceptions of time and space transformed.  Certainly, the restoration of Israel remains a viable hope, but the center of Jesus’ rule shifts from Jerusalem to the heavenly realms where he takes his place at the right hand of the Father.  God’s kingdom expands beyond the limitations of all earthy kings and kingdoms, revealing the man from Nazareth as the Lord.  Out of their experience with the risen and ascended Christ, the substance of Christian teaching takes shape. 

The ascension stands as a distinct article of our faith – separate and above the resurrection. You all know it. “I believe in…. Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord … who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.  On the third day, he rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.”  And ascended into heaven.  For Luke, the disciples are never the same again after the revelation of the ascension.

The good news for those left standing on that Judean hillside – and for all of us today is that Jesus not only comes from God, He returns to God.  This is the true scope of the movement for followers of the Way – we come from God, we return to God.  The challenge in the meantime is to keep our lives centered on God, rooted and grounded in God, allowing God to be the one in whom we “live and move and have our being”, here and now, on this earth.

 Among other things, this text underlines how God works through the simplest of folk – peasants and outcasts, thick-skulled and fearful folk – to change the world.  These disciples are given the responsibility for Jesus’ radically revolutionary movement to turn the world right side up.  On the surface, they may seem an unlikely group, caught up in conventional concern for the restoration of the literal Davidic kingdom in Israel – not able to see beyond their concrete desires for their own welfare.  Nonetheless, Jesus stays with them long enough to be able to pass them off to the Spirit, who will continue the work he has begun in and among them.  They are about to find voices that will indeed speak truth to power and spread good news to the very ends of the earth.

The challenge for us modern disciples is to do likewise.  When and where do we find ourselves standing, “looking up toward heaven,” hoping that Jesus will do it for us?  How are we hamstrung by our inability to see beyond the conventional into the miraculous promises that are still given to us today as followers of the Way?  What would it take for us, as individuals and as communities of faith, to travel this thoroughfare that leads from God to God?

Those first disciples must have shared with one another their anxieties and fears, their hopes and dreams, their wonder and anticipation as they retraced their steps to Jerusalem on that first Ascension Day.  Jesus gathered them as a community, taught them as a community, and left from the midst of their little community.  The Spirit was promised to them in community.  Of course, individuals can and do have experience of the Spirit, but Jesus makes it clear that it is the Spirit, working in the community, that will spread the good news around the world and bring in the reign of God. 

That reality has not changed in two thousand years.  It still takes a community of faith, filled with the Spirit of God, to spread the good news and bring in the reign of God.  That continues to be our challenge and our commission as the body of Christ, followers of the Way.  Amen.

A Lesson on Love

Rev. Debbie Cato
John 15:9-17
Fairfield Community Church
May 5, 2024 

Holy Spirit, help us to hear familiar words with fresh ears, and to take

your Holy Word for us seriously, as a guide and pattern for our lives. Amen

 

 A Lesson on Love

 

Back in the 1960’s, there was a great Beatles song – “All You Need is Love.”

        

 All you need is love, love; Love is all you need.            

 

 Now I know some of you weren’t even alive – I was alive but very young.  I had older sisters.  The 60’s were a turbulent time and the answer – at least from the young people, was that the answer to the world’s problems was an enthusiastic embrace of love – love would make all the problems go away.   Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

This kind of idea of love isn’t supported in today’s Gospel lesson.  Yes, Jesus certainly praises love.  He tells us that love is a gift from God, an excellence of character, and certainly a way of life.  But nothing Jesus says justifies love as some naïve ideal; some simple idea of “let’s just all get along.”  In fact, Jesus gives the impression that loving one another is rather complicated.  He goes into a lengthy description of exactly what He means by his commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”  You see, he doesn’t just say “love one another,” does he?  He complicates things tremendously when he tells us - commands us really, to “love one another as I have loved you.” 

Jesus describes this love and he gives us examples so that we can actually understand; so that we can actually grasp what he means.   “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

One of the most used scripture passages for weddings is 1 Corinthians 13.  I’m sure you are familiar with it:

 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-8

It’s a beautiful passage because it reads like a poem.  But I always tell couples that as lovely as it is, it is a hard passage to live out – harder than it sounds.  This kind of love is not about you.  This kind of love is interested in the good of the other person, rather than your own good, your own comfort, your own needs.  It does not attempt to control or dominate or possess the other person.  As Paul
defines love in Corinthians – this love is perfect love. 

 

The problem us modern English-speaking people have is that we have one word for love  - and so it’s hard for us to understand what this Scripture is teaching.  We say that we love God, we love our spouse, our children, our families, and our friends.  We say that we love chocolate or coffee or lemon meringue pie.  We love a joke, a certain restaurant, or our job.  But I at least, would argue that I don’t love a joke in the same way that I love chocolate or in the same way I love my family.  Yet the word love is really the only word we have that communicates that we really, really like something or that something is really important to us!

In Greek, the language that this passage was originally written in, there are multiple words for love that convey a difference of intensity or depth of feeling.  There is one word for the kind of love that you have friends – philia and there is another word for the love that expresses the romantic love or physical attraction that is felt between a couple - eros.  And then there’s agape – the Greek word for love that is used to describe the way that Christ loves us.  It is this word – agape – that is used in this scripture passage that describes the kind of love that a husband is to have for his wife and the kind of love a wife is to have for her husband.   The love of Christ is our model.  This is how Jesus loves.  Jesus does not envy or boast.  Jesus’ love is not self-seeking, he doesn’t keep track of our mistakes.

 When we remember that Christ loved us so much, that he died on the cross for the sins of the world, we begin to understand that the love of Christ is complete sacrificial love.  It’s a love that isn’t based on what we do or don’t do, or who we are – thank goodness!  After all, Christ died on the cross to save a bunch of sinners. 

And it’s this kind of love – agape love that’s used in our John passage this morning to describe the way we are to love one another; the way that Christ loves us.  More than just a feeling of euphoria, it’s a deep, disciplined habit of care and concern for one another that is deeply woven into our lives in such a way that we might even find ourselves called to die for it.   Complete sacrificial love. 

Agape love does not come easily.  How can we possibly love in this way?   It’s impossible, we say.  “We” get in the way of this kind of sacrificial, perfect love.  If we truly could love one another as Christ has loved us, there would be no divorce; there would be no broken relationships; there would be no pain and injustice; there would be no hatred.  There would be no war.  “How is this kind of love possible?” we ask. 

And of course the answer is, it’s not possible.  At least not on our own.  It’s only possible through Christ.  It’s only possible because Christ loves us in this way.  And through the love of Christ; out of this huge well of divine love, we can draw the love we need as we move out with our much tinier containers into a love-starved world.  We do not have the resources of love we need within ourselves. But in our spirit-filled hearts and minds and souls, we can constantly draw from this deep well of Christ’s love in us.

Jesus is commanding us to pass on the same undeserved love you have experienced and continue to experience each and every day from Jesus, to the (perhaps) undeserving but hurting people around you.  Jesus gave up his life not just for his friends, but, for the whole hurting world – including his enemies.  Jesus now asks us to give up our lives for our friends, and for the hurting and sometimes hostile world around us. 

In his commentary on today’s text, Dale Bruner said, “The inhaling of an undeserved divine love for ourselves and the exhaling of our all-too-human, but still well-intended love for others is the breathing exercise that all disciples must try to practice every day.”   I like that.  We breathe in all this undeserved love from God for ourselves each and every minute of each and every day. What we are called to do as disciples is to breathe out the same undeserved love for others.  Breathe in the love of God for us.  Breathe out the love of God from us to others.  God in.  God out.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.

And how is this love expressed?  How does the world see our love for Christ?  The same way that Christ shows his love to us – a high bar indeed. 

The love of Christ is transformed into a joyous existence; bearing good fruits and dwelling in a loving, accepting, united community.  Love becomes a transforming power more than a superficial and emotional expression.  We begin “loving our enemies; doing good to those who hate us; blessing those who curse us; praying for those who abuse us.”   We continue by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting those who are struggling and in pain, fighting for justice for the oppressed … doing the things that Jesus was about.

As a church, we made a commitment to take a risk and be about church in new and exciting and sometimes scary ways; ways that we pray will bear good fruit as Jesus’ commands us.  We are out in the community doing stuff – being the church, loving our neighbors.  We are finding ways to meet some of the needs in our community and in the process share the hope and love of Christ with a culture that sorely needs Him.  In order to move forward, it has taken, and continues to take courage and prayer and faith and the movement of the Holy Spirit.  It takes agape love. 

We will have to continue to draw from the deep well of God’s love for us in order to keep loving one another and our neighbors.  But I think this is what Jesus is talking about when he commands his disciples – when he commands you and me - to “love one another as he has loved us” and in doing so, to “go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

Let’s be prayerful and let’s live out of the depths of God’s undeserving love for each and every one of us.  It’s the best gift we’ll ever have.  Amen.