Featuring Rob’s sermon from Sunday and links to all our content!
Featuring Aaron’s sermon from Sunday, a link to our recent blog post from the Mission, Vision, and Values Team, as well as links to several of our content clearinghouses for all your SJC content needs!
Featuring Rob’s sermon from Sunday and links to all our content!
Featuring Aaron’s sermon from Sunday, and a reflection from Steve Garnaas-Holmes shared out by Anne. Also links to several of our content clearinghouses for all your SJC content needs!
My earthly father is no longer here to help me navigate when needed but my Heavenly father is still with me. Sometimes now I feel that I am living in fog and cannot see what’s ahead or where I am going. What will life be like in the future? But I put my trust in Him to help me through the fog and keep me off the crashing rocks.
One of my most cherished pieces of liturgy in our faith tradition is in the Eucharistic Prayer's reminder that Jesus "stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world." The enormity, the totality, of that stretch, that sacrificial gift strikes awe in my heart every time I hear it.
When I was a child, I had to serve. I was required to do chores, and the reward was to make those in my immediate circle pleased. The world revolved around me, and I learned that I had to behave in a certain manner to keep it that way.
When I was an adolescent, I got to serve. I became aware of the greater cosmos, and when I participated I was rewarded. I got a piece of candy, or maybe an award. The biggest reward, however, was that I was acknowledged as a person and an important cog in the machinery of life.
As an adult, I want to serve. How did I make the leap from being the center of the universe, to becoming one of many, then accepting my role in all of this? I can't give you a date, or an incident. What I know is that I did not arrive here alone. There is the obvious: I can't host at a shelter without hundreds of people coming before me to pave the path. Any service that our church provides may have started with an person's idea, but to bring that idea to fruition requires more than one person.
To me, those are the little things, the easy things. The important service is not the grandiose kind, it does not provide rewards, and it rarely shows us the long term effects of our actions. How do I know? Because I was, and still am, the recipient of such service. When I was young and received a gentle correction rather than being berated when I misbehaved - someone served God, the community, and me. Then there was the kind word and important guidance when I thought I had all the answers to life, the universe, and everything - someone served God, the community, and me. And now, by giving me the freedom to ask questions that may not be permissible elsewhere, you are serving God, the community, and me.
To paraphrase: service is an outward and visible sign of the inner love we have received from God, and readily, unselfishly share with each other. I am so grateful for the many people in my life, especially St. John's, that have enabled me to walk the Jesus walk. I couldn't do it without you.
