Author: Rev. Wells

Scripture: Luke 24:45-53

Pastor:  Rev. Kim P. Wells

Startled.  Terrified.  Frightened.  Doubtful.  Panicked.  Disturbed.  Grieving.  That is what we are told about the condition of the disciples as this story begins.  That is the shape they are in.  It’s not a very good place to be, is it?  It’s hard to be grieving and heartbroken and afraid and all that goes along with that.  These disciples are distraught.  Yet in the story, just a short time later, they are filled with joy and praising God.  How did that happen?

In the story we are told of Jesus appearing to the group of disciples and showing them his hands and feet, and then eating.  He is trying to show that he is not a ghost.  That he is real.  He then tells them about the fulfillment of the scriptures.  Again, he is showing them that this is real like the other things that God has done in the past.  Like the promises God has made and fulfilled in the past.  It is happening again.  And it is real.  They are not imagining something or hallucinating.  Those references to the hands and feet, eating, and scripture are ways of validating the reality of the disciples.  

In the story, Jesus is extending the intentions of God to the present moment and beyond.  Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.  There is more to come and it will start right there, with them.  And God will provide the energy and inspiration.  All they have to do is wait for it and be obedient.  Again, this fits in with their conception of reality as a continuation of what God has done and, they now see, has been doing.  They will be part of the unfolding of a new chapter in the fulfilling of the promises of God.  

Then in the story, Jesus is taken up into heaven.  While this sounds like sci-fi to us, there were several Hebrew Bible figures who were taken up into heaven like Elijah.  This concept of being taken up was also part of Greco-Roman literature.  The ascent of heroes and immortals was a well-known device.  In one example, the nobles exhort the people to revere Romulus, “since he had been caught up into heaven, and was to be a benevolent god for them instead of a good king.”  [Plutarch, quoted in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8, p. 417]   So, in Luke’s story, Jesus was taken up.  People had associations with this.  This would not have seemed unbelievable.  It would have put Jesus in league with other important figures.  So being taken up again verified his importance and the reality of the experience.  

As the gospel concludes, the disciples are in the Temple in Jerusalem.  That is where the gospel began, with Zechariah, Anna, and Simeon, validating the identity of Jesus.  And now the disciples are in the Temple again without Jesus.  He has left them.  Again.  He died.  Came back.  And left again.  A cruel joke?  Are the disciples distraught and scared?  No.  We are told that the disciples were filled with great joy.  Yes, joy.  They were at the Temple night and day filled with joy and praising God.  They were continually in the Temple blessing God.

It’s interesting.  They still don’t have Jesus.  He has been crucified.  They have still left home and family.  They still may be pursued by Temple authorities or Roman authorities as friends of Jesus.  The way the story is told, the outward circumstances of the disciples has not greatly improved.  And yet they are overcome with great joy.  

Here we see the nature of joy.  Jesus promised the disciples joy.  And here, they have it.  But joy is not based on outward circumstances.  Joy is not dependent on being in a comfortable, safe situation.  Joy is not defined as the absence of sorrow or pain or heartbreak.  Joy can be present, can thrive, can overwhelm, even in difficult circumstances, even through grief and loss.  

In the story of the ascension, we see that joy is rooted in deeply held trust in the on-going goodness, steadfast love, and purposes of God.  The disciples see a story with intention.  They see the arc of redemption.  They see that all things are working together in the plan of God.  And so they are filled with joy.  Their deep conviction is in the larger prevailing dreams of God.  Joy is confidence that those dreams will come to fruition and that all of Creation is part of that.  

In today’s world, in the church, we may not ascribe to such a traditional view of God.  Many no longer think of God as a spirit, some thing some where, making personal interventions in human history.  While we may have different conceptions of God, the basics about joy hold fast.  Joy is a deep seated trust in the unfolding of Creation and history in a way that is good.  Joy encompasses the ability be struck by wonder whatever the circumstances.  Joy invites us to be amazed and awed whatever our outward condition.  Joy includes a fundamentally hopeful orientation toward the future whatever it may hold.  While some may not feel comfortable with the terminology, “God has a plan,” and I am among you, joy invites us to be taken in with wonder and amazement and delighted by the inexplicable, the holy, the sacred, every day; continually to use the word from Luke.  

To choose joy as the orientation for our lives does not mean that we will be happy all of the time.  It does not mean that we will be materially prosperous.  It does not mean that disaster will not befall us or our loved ones.  It does not spare us grief.  Joy gives us a grounding in something that is greater than ourselves, that is beyond us, yet within us, something that is good and hopeful.  It involves a capacity for seeing the love, the connection, the blessing, wherever it may be and then rejoicing, feeling and expressing joy.  

This is part of what we do in church each week.  We try to tune ourselves in to the greater reality of love and forgiveness and blessing so that we see this in our lives and the world.  Here we cultivate the trust that life is fundamentally good, a miracle, really.  Here we remind ourselves to be struck by awe and wonder, wherever it may appear.  And it will appear.  Here we claim and validate our reality in goodness and love.  We choose joy!

Sometimes I think that the greed in our culture obstructs the orientation toward joy.  We see ads and commercials that tell us life is good when you have a certain cold beer in your hand on a hot day.  And that driving a certain kind of car will make it all fine.  And that to be beautiful is to be bejeweled.  But joy depends on none of those things.  It is not dependent on material possessions or wealth.  That makes joy countercultural, subversive.  It is not something you can buy.  But it has great value.  

You can be poor and hungry and still have feelings of blessedness and joy.  You can be sick and tired and still experience joy.  You can be buffeted by grief and still know joy.  You can be unemployed and homeless and still find joy in life.  And no one can take it away from you.  Joy is about spiritual conviction and can’t be controlled by economic conditions or other circumstances.  To choose joy is to choose liberation.  

An orientation of joy leads to a life of deep contentment and fulfillment.  That is what Jesus wants for his disciples, for his followers, for us, and for all people.  Joy.  Delight in the marvels of life, nature, relationships.  Engagement with others in the work of healing and justice and reconciliation.  This is the way of joy.  And it is open to us all.  It is our birthright.  And it exceeds explanation or comprehension.  

Bill Clarke shares this story from the L’Arche community which includes developmentally disabled adults:  

“Claude has the most illogical mind that I have ever encountered so this may be the first and last time that he is ever quoted in a book.  He may ask such questions as ‘What time is orange?’ or ‘How was tomorrow?’  But still he does have a wisdom all his own. . . Well, one day Claude was at the beach with Jean-Pierre and several others of the community.  The ocean was at low tide so there was an immense stretch of flat, sandy beach.  They began making designs in the sand.  Claude drew a big circle with a couple of marks inside that could have been facial features.  ‘What’s that?’ asked Jean-Pierre.  With a big smile Claude replied:  ‘It’s Madame Sun.’ ‘That’s good’ Jean-Pierre said, ‘Now let’s see you draw joy.’  Claude took a look around him at the wide beach that stretched out in both directions as far as the eye could see, then turned to Jean-Pierre and said with a huge smile in all seriousness:  ‘There’s not enough room!’”  Amen!

[Bill Clarke, Enough Room for Joy:  Jean Vanier’s L’Arch, A Message for Our Time, quoted in Resources for Preaching and Worship Year C: Quotations, Meditations, Poetry, and Prayers, compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, p. 158]

 A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Luke 24:45-53                                                                                                                                   Rev. Kim P. Wells

Startled.  Terrified.  Frightened.  Doubtful.  Panicked.  Disturbed.  Grieving.  That is what we are told about the condition of the disciples as this story begins.  That is the shape they are in.  It’s not a very good place to be, is it?  It’s hard to be grieving and heartbroken and afraid and all that goes along with that.  These disciples are distraught.  Yet in the story, just a short time later, they are filled with joy and praising God.  How did that happen?

In the story we are told of Jesus appearing to the group of disciples and showing them his hands and feet, and then eating.  He is trying to show that he is not a ghost.  That he is real.  He then tells them about the fulfillment of the scriptures.  Again, he is showing them that this is real like the other things that God has done in the past.  Like the promises God has made and fulfilled in the past.  It is happening again.  And it is real.  They are not imagining something or hallucinating.  Those references to the hands and feet, eating, and scripture are ways of validating the reality of the disciples.  

In the story, Jesus is extending the intentions of God to the present moment and beyond.  Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.  There is more to come and it will start right there, with them.  And God will provide the energy and inspiration.  All they have to do is wait for it and be obedient.  Again, this fits in with their conception of reality as a continuation of what God has done and, they now see, has been doing.  They will be part of the unfolding of a new chapter in the fulfilling of the promises of God.  

Then in the story, Jesus is taken up into heaven.  While this sounds like sci-fi to us, there were several Hebrew Bible figures who were taken up into heaven like Elijah.  This concept of being taken up was also part of Greco-Roman literature.  The ascent of heroes and immortals was a well-known device.  In one example, the nobles exhort the people to revere Romulus, “since he had been caught up into heaven, and was to be a benevolent god for them instead of a good king.”  [Plutarch, quoted in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8, p. 417]   So, in Luke’s story, Jesus was taken up.  People had associations with this.  This would not have seemed unbelievable.  It would have put Jesus in league with other important figures.  So being taken up again verified his importance and the reality of the experience.  

As the gospel concludes, the disciples are in the Temple in Jerusalem.  That is where the gospel began, with Zechariah, Anna, and Simeon, validating the identity of Jesus.  And now the disciples are in the Temple again without Jesus.  He has left them.  Again.  He died.  Came back.  And left again.  A cruel joke?  Are the disciples distraught and scared?  No.  We are told that the disciples were filled with great joy.  Yes, joy.  They were at the Temple night and day filled with joy and praising God.  They were continually in the Temple blessing God.

It’s interesting.  They still don’t have Jesus.  He has been crucified.  They have still left home and family.  They still may be pursued by Temple authorities or Roman authorities as friends of Jesus.  The way the story is told, the outward circumstances of the disciples has not greatly improved.  And yet they are overcome with great joy.  

Here we see the nature of joy.  Jesus promised the disciples joy.  And here, they have it.  But joy is not based on outward circumstances.  Joy is not dependent on being in a comfortable, safe situation.  Joy is not defined as the absence of sorrow or pain or heartbreak.  Joy can be present, can thrive, can overwhelm, even in difficult circumstances, even through grief and loss.  

In the story of the ascension, we see that joy is rooted in deeply held trust in the on-going goodness, steadfast love, and purposes of God.  The disciples see a story with intention.  They see the arc of redemption.  They see that all things are working together in the plan of God.  And so they are filled with joy.  Their deep conviction is in the larger prevailing dreams of God.  Joy is confidence that those dreams will come to fruition and that all of Creation is part of that.  

In today’s world, in the church, we may not ascribe to such a traditional view of God.  Many no longer think of God as a spirit, some thing some where, making personal interventions in human history.  While we may have different conceptions of God, the basics about joy hold fast.  Joy is a deep seated trust in the unfolding of Creation and history in a way that is good.  Joy encompasses the ability be struck by wonder whatever the circumstances.  Joy invites us to be amazed and awed whatever our outward condition.  Joy includes a fundamentally hopeful orientation toward the future whatever it may hold.  While some may not feel comfortable with the terminology, “God has a plan,” and I am among you, joy invites us to be taken in with wonder and amazement and delighted by the inexplicable, the holy, the sacred, every day; continually to use the word from Luke.  

To choose joy as the orientation for our lives does not mean that we will be happy all of the time.  It does not mean that we will be materially prosperous.  It does not mean that disaster will not befall us or our loved ones.  It does not spare us grief.  Joy gives us a grounding in something that is greater than ourselves, that is beyond us, yet within us, something that is good and hopeful.  It involves a capacity for seeing the love, the connection, the blessing, wherever it may be and then rejoicing, feeling and expressing joy.  

This is part of what we do in church each week.  We try to tune ourselves in to the greater reality of love and forgiveness and blessing so that we see this in our lives and the world.  Here we cultivate the trust that life is fundamentally good, a miracle, really.  Here we remind ourselves to be struck by awe and wonder, wherever it may appear.  And it will appear.  Here we claim and validate our reality in goodness and love.  We choose joy!

Sometimes I think that the greed in our culture obstructs the orientation toward joy.  We see ads and commercials that tell us life is good when you have a certain cold beer in your hand on a hot day.  And that driving a certain kind of car will make it all fine.  And that to be beautiful is to be bejeweled.  But joy depends on none of those things.  It is not dependent on material possessions or wealth.  That makes joy countercultural, subversive.  It is not something you can buy.  But it has great value.  

You can be poor and hungry and still have feelings of blessedness and joy.  You can be sick and tired and still experience joy.  You can be buffeted by grief and still know joy.  You can be unemployed and homeless and still find joy in life.  And no one can take it away from you.  Joy is about spiritual conviction and can’t be controlled by economic conditions or other circumstances.  To choose joy is to choose liberation.  

An orientation of joy leads to a life of deep contentment and fulfillment.  That is what Jesus wants for his disciples, for his followers, for us, and for all people.  Joy.  Delight in the marvels of life, nature, relationships.  Engagement with others in the work of healing and justice and reconciliation.  This is the way of joy.  And it is open to us all.  It is our birthright.  And it exceeds explanation or comprehension.  

Bill Clarke shares this story from the L’Arche community which includes developmentally disabled adults:  

“Claude has the most illogical mind that I have ever encountered so this may be the first and last time that he is ever quoted in a book.  He may ask such questions as ‘What time is orange?’ or ‘How was tomorrow?’  But still he does have a wisdom all his own. . . Well, one day Claude was at the beach with Jean-Pierre and several others of the community.  The ocean was at low tide so there was an immense stretch of flat, sandy beach.  They began making designs in the sand.  Claude drew a big circle with a couple of marks inside that could have been facial features.  ‘What’s that?’ asked Jean-Pierre.  With a big smile Claude replied:  ‘It’s Madame Sun.’ ‘That’s good’ Jean-Pierre said, ‘Now let’s see you draw joy.’  Claude took a look around him at the wide beach that stretched out in both directions as far as the eye could see, then turned to Jean-Pierre and said with a huge smile in all seriousness:  ‘There’s not enough room!’”  Amen!

[Bill Clarke, Enough Room for Joy:  Jean Vanier’s L’Arch, A Message for Our Time, quoted in Resources for Preaching and Worship Year C: Quotations, Meditations, Poetry, and Prayers, compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, p. 158]

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Scripture Lesson:  Acts 16:9-15

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

In her book, A Big-Enough God: Artful Theology, Sara Maitland, known mostly as a fantasy fiction writer, has this to say:  “So, it turns out, we do not have a little tame domestic God, thank God, but we do have a huge, wild, dangerous God – dangerous of course only if we think that God ought to be manageable and safe; a God of almost manic creativity, ingenuity and enthusiasm; a Big-Enough God, who is also a supremely generous and patient God; a God of beauty and chance and solidarity.” [Resources for Preaching and Worship Year C: Quotations, Meditations, Poetry, and Prayers, eds. Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, p. 159-160, quoting Sara Maitland, p. 150]

We see this God portrayed by Maitland in the story that we heard this morning from Acts; the story of Paul and Silas going to Macedonia and finding Lydia and others praying by the river.  There are so many things in this story that are unexpected, wild, and generous. There is beauty and chance and surprising solidarity.  [Maitland]

First we start with Paul and Silas who were busy going around what was Asia Minor meeting with people in synagogues and telling them about Jesus as Messiah.  They were heading to Asia to do this work for God.   But this plan is immediately scratched when Paul is given a vision of a man telling him to go to Macedonia, today this is Greece.  Europe.  Not Asia.  So we see Paul and Silas dealing with a wild God that is giving unexpected direction. 

In the vision a man tells Paul he is needed in Macedonia.  The man is pleading, begging.  The need is urgent, dire.  And Paul gets to Macedonia, to the city of Philippi and finds not an eager synagogue of people hungry to hear of Jesus Christ, but a group of women, outside of town, praying together by a river, headed by a rich Gentile woman.   OK.  This is all wrong.  

Paul is a rabbi figure who was used to sitting down to teach men not women.  And this Lydia woman?  First we note that Lydia is not Jewish.  She is not coming to the way of Jesus through Judaism as many others have.  She is a God -fearer, someone attracted to Judaism and its one God, but not born a Jew; not ethnically Jewish.   She is a Gentile woman.  Then we notice that she is not in any way identified by her status relative to a man – wife, mother, daughter.  No.  She is portrayed as an independent, self-sufficient, successful business woman who is in charge of her household.  That is not a “thing” in the ancient world.  And her business, this dealing in purple cloth, means that she is directly involved with important, powerful, wealthy people because that’s who was allowed to wear purple cloth and who could afford purple cloth.  Purple cloth was dyed with coloring from a snail that was found in Thyatira where there was a town named Lydia.  Was that this woman’s name or just where she was from?  We don’t know.  But purple cloth was sold to a very limited very wealthy market.  So Lydia was used to dealing with those who were rich and powerful.  Thus she herself had power and influence.   This is completely unexpected in that context.  

So, here are these unlikely characters in this story, Paul, his associate, Silas, and Lydia and her household and friends.  Paul shares the good news of Jesus Christ in this unlikely setting (where is the man he saw in his vision?), and Lydia responds by having herself and her household baptized.  Remember, she is the head of household, bizarre as it is, so she has the authority to make this decision for those for whom she is responsible.  All are baptized, and then, as if to provide evidence of the validity of this baptism, Lydia asks Paul and Silas to stay at her house, she offers them hospitality.  She is offering a test, proof that the baptism is authentic, that she is sincere about living a new life emulating Christlike behavior.  In this gesture we see the mutuality of life in Jesus and we see the validity of the baptism.  Paul has preached and baptized and Lydia immediately responds with the Christian virtue of welcome and hospitality even to those vastly different from herself – men, from a lower socio economic class, and from another country/region.  She is welcoming the stranger.  So both Lydia and Paul respond to the directives of the wild God of the unexpected.                                         

The first convert to Christianity on European soil is not a man of influence, or a man that is downtrodden.  It is not even a man.  It is a woman of wealth, power, and influence.  This is ironic when you consider that the church in Europe was dominated by men of wealth and means who intentionally prevented the leadership of women.  This story is rich in irony and surprise.  Isn’t that the way with the wild, unmanageable, almost manic, supremely generous and patient God?  The God of beauty and chance and solidarity?  [Maitland]

Paul and Silas put themselves at the disposal of God thinking they had some idea of what would be expected of them.  Even they were surprised by what God had in mind for them in this story.  Did Paul ever think he would be in Europe, Macedonia, the home of Socrates, Plato, Alexander the Great, Homer, sitting on the ground by a river talking to a group of women that he would then baptize in that very river?  He could never have anticipated this even though he was in the Lord’s service, a slave to Christ Jesus.  

And Lydia.  She probably came to pray with these women every week.  They were sincere in their devotion.  Clearly she knew there was more to life than making money and amassing power and influence.  It was not enough to be the head of the household.  She knew that she had hunger for more than food.  We are not told anything about the heartbreak or suffering she may have been living with.  But do we know that she, like all people, had spiritual needs that could not be satisfied by material comforts.  She was looking for meaning and a sense of being part of something beyond herself.  She was looking for a larger reality;  something beyond the borders of her cultural setting and her daily life.  Perhaps she was looking to tap into a universal source of grace and love for herself and others.  And in Paul’s message she hears of a God of all reality.  A God of love for all people, rich, poor, and in-between.  Healthy, sick, and in every condition.  Liberal, conservative, and all the rest.  Asian, European, male, female, and every other sort of person.  She hears of that God in what Paul had to say about Jesus and his ministry, his vision of the realm of God here and now.  Evidently, it was all Lydia could have hoped for and more.  And so it was into the river for her and her household and rising up to this new life that she had yearned for.

Whatever state we are in, physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, whatever our needs, even though we may not know what they are, God is here, seeking us out, offering us grace and love.  And it may be hard for us to recognize because it is coming to us in the most unexpected fashion, involving the least likely people we can imagine.  And when we say yes, and yes again, and yes again, this trust puts us in situations we may find extremely unexpected and transforming.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember those who have been killed in the armed services.  It is a poignant day.  A day of grief.  It’s not easy to willingly recognize the horrible toll of war and armed conflict.  And war is not only perilous for soldiers.  Families, elders, and children are killed in war as well.  Refugees forced to flee war torn areas die or are killed.  People who need healthcare and food die because the resources are diverted to armaments.  Memorial Day is a time to remember the terrible toll of war.  And if we are open to it, if our spirits are pliable, this remembering can open a space for the God of love to offer forgiveness, healing, and a way to peace.  Many avid peace activists have lost someone in war or have personally served in armed military conflict.  They know the price of war firsthand and are willing to pay the price of peace whatever it may be.  Memorial Day for us can be like Lydia going to the river.  Going with her needs and desires and opening herself to being surprised by God.  Then saying yes to the wildness of God.  Under God, in whom we trust, may our annual Memorial Day observance move us ever closer to peace through non-violent resolution of conflict.   

The story of the encounter between Paul and Silas and Lydia and her household reminds us that we can’t control God, the unmanageable, huge, and wild God of almost manic creativity, ingenuity, and enthusiasm. [Maitland]  But we can position ourselves to be open, to be receptive, to be willing to welcome that God into our lives.  Lydia went to the river each sabbath to pray.  We can prepare ourselves by practicing our faith – coming to church, praying, serving others.  We can make ourselves more receptive by reading the Bible and other writings that inspire and illuminate life and who we are.  We can learn and seek and trust and engage.  Then to the God present in our lives, we will say yes, we will go on the journey, we will take the plunge – whatever it may be.  

This story shows us that God, the wild, unpredictable dangerous God [Maitland] is not only a God for people who are poor and suffering and downtrodden.  This is a God for everyone and all forms of life and all that sustains life.  Christianity is not limited to serving those who are materially disadvantaged, those who are abused and forgotten.  Christianity is a spiritual path that is welcoming to everyone – in all states of growth as well as all lifestyles, experiences, and income levels.  It is open even to those who are causing, knowingly or unknowingly, abuse and injustice.  This is not a religion that assumes that material wealth is a sign of spiritual well-being.  In fact, many people with lots of money seem to be more despairing, more lost, more awash, more in need morally and spiritually.   So many people with material security are unsatisfied and lost. The country with the highest Gross Domestic Product, United Arab Emirates, ranks 20th in the World Happiness Report.  In case you are wondering, the US ranks 18th.  [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report]  Money doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.  This story of Lydia shows us a God concerned with the well-being of everyone, those who are well off in some ways, those who are disadvantaged;  all who suffering and broken hearted as well as those seeking a deeper experience of human life.  

There was a survey done of Presbyterians in the 1990’s about their experience of God.  Half the church members said they had had a vision from God.  Yes, half.  And an even greater percentage of clergy admitted to having had a vision from God.   [Cited by Rev. Kathryn M. Matthews at Sermon Seeds 5.26.19,  https://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_may_26_2019]  Some thought the results of the Presbyterian survey were surprising.  The numbers very high.  

I must say, the statistics for the congregants surprised me but not for the clergy.  When you consider the stressful, demanding, challenging nature of the profession of ministry, even given the rewards that satisfy beyond measure, it is still surprising to me that people go into this field, including myself.  I had in mind becoming a lawyer and working for those who don’t get justice in the court system – people of color, people of low income.  But one Sunday morning, walking back to my dorm after the service at the Wellesley Congregational United Church of Christ, I had a vision that if I made one person feel the way I felt that Sunday morning after church, I would have served my purpose.  That is what I was supposed to do with my life.  I was to enter the ministry.  The message was strong and clear.  No ambiguity.  After that there was no turning back.  And I have not regretted it, well, at least not very often.    

In the Presbyterian survey, half of the lay people also reported having had a vision from God.  Why is that surprising?  Isn’t that what we come here for each week?  Isn’t that why we are part of the church?  We are trying to open ourselves to God.  Cultivate a willing spirit. Trying to make ourselves more receptive to grace and love.  Looking for a word of healing, forgiveness, comfort, and hope.  We want to be part of the Divine reality that we see in the ministry of Jesus.  We want to be part of the vision of the God of love and new life.  

So, whoever we are, rich, poor, broken, solid, happy, regretful, God is seeking us.  And in God our deepest hungers and desires will be fulfilled.  But this may very well all happen in ways we least expect and involve people we never thought we would meet and couldn’t have imagined in our lives!                                          

May we open ourselves to taking our part in God’s visions and dreams.  Amen.  

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.