Sermon Thanking God for Speaking 1 Kings 19:4-8

Sermon Preached on  August 8th, 2021 at Stockbridge Presbyterian

Prayer-----Lord, Listen to your children praying, lord send your spirit in this place. Lord listen to your children praying, send us love, send us power, send us grace. 

We have spent our first summer together going through scriptures that remind us to be thankful in all things. We have looked through a variety of ways of life and how our attitude of thankfulness changes our outlook on life. 

Thanking God for All Things

  Thanking God in Exile 

 Thanking God in the Storms of Life 

Thanking God for Healing 

Thanking God for the Nations 

 Thanking God for Peace

Thanking God for Feeding the People

Thanking God for Loving Us Through Our Mess

 And Thanking God for Jesus 

Today’s scripture is in 1 Kings. The prophet Elijah has done many wonderful things as a prophet of the Lord. Spoken God’s truth and taken down the prophets of Baal, humiliating them and thus humiliating Baal. He spoke out against the evil that the King was doing and how he had turned from the Lord and all the court was against him. 

This is where we reach today’s scripture. 

19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all Baal’s prophets with the sword.2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this message: “May the gods do whatever they want to me if by this time tomorrow I haven’t made your life like the life of one of them.”

3 Elijah was terrified. He got up and ran for his life. He arrived at Beer-sheba in Judah and left his assistant there. 4 He himself went farther on into the desert a day’s journey. He finally sat down under a solitary broom bush. He longed for his own death: “It’s more than enough, Lord! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors.” 5 He lay down and slept under the solitary broom bush.

Then suddenly a messenger tapped him and said to him, “Get up! Eat something!” 6 Elijah opened his eyes and saw flatbread baked on glowing coals and a jar of water right by his head. He ate and drank, and then went back to sleep. 7 The Lord’s messenger returned a second time and tapped him. “Get up!” the messenger said. “Eat something, because you have a difficult road ahead of you.” 8 Elijah got up, ate and drank, and went refreshed by that food for forty days and nights until he arrived at Horeb, God’s mountain. 

Elijah ran for his life. He spent all his energy to get away for the wrath of humans and hit his breaking point. He was utterly exhausted, Depressed and full of despair. 

When have you hit your breaking point in life? What pleas did you lift up to the Lord? 

Elijah felt whatever God would do to end his suffering was better than anything where he came from. He placed himself in the most solitary location (a broom tree typically grows in clusters and he chose a place to symbolize his feelings of isolation and aloneness in his purpose and life. 

This was a prayer of despair, a place that came deep within and God told him two things. Eat a snack and take a nap. 

This is sometimes all we have in life. We don’t know what else to do. We are past the breaking point and this story reminds us we don’t have to do it all right now. We can eat, rest, and take each moment at a time. 

Elijah had a messenger, a mal’ak, an angel of the LORD come to feed him to give him a sustaining meal for energy. It was a gracious provision that mirrored the gifts of the Lord in Jesus when bread and water was given and also symbolized the sustaining love of God for all people. Elijah was so worn that after eating he gave in and rested until asked to eat again to gain energy for the journey, the new purpose, the new task ahead.

The psalms talks about sleep as a moment of God’s appearance. 

Psalm 4:8 “I will lie down and fall asleep in peace because you alone, LORD, let me live in safety. 

Elijah might have asked for God to take his life. But God changed his life in these moments. Elijah was surrendering to God in a whole new way. And GOD SPOKE. 

The first task the Lord gave to Elijah was to just BE. To Be still and Know that I am God. To go out even further and be in the presence of the Lord. Hear the end of this story of Elijah with God in 1 Kings 19:

9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord’s word came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

10 Elijah replied, “I’ve been very passionate for the Lord God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars, and they have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too!”

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake.12 After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance. A voice came to him.

THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD.THANKS BE TO GOD.

The story continues and in the conversation Elijah had with God, God provided a new purpose. God provided Elisha to take up the mantle of the disheartened, burned out soul and give Elijah new energy to serve the Lord. 

I love this passage of God speaking to Elijah. There is the firmness of a voice coming to Elijah and a direct conversation but there is more. 

God provides a New Art of Listening as we go to God in prayer. God provides someone to walk with Elijah and turns him into a mentor. God answered prayer not in the way that was expected or maybe even wanted at the time, but in the way that was necessary for life abundant in God to be claimed and reclaimed by God’s servant. 

When we pray we hope for answers. We hope for clarity, for direction, for at least a sense of peace.

Henri Nouwen a great priest, writer, and theologian said these things about prayer: 

Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us. 

In another quote he asks: 

Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It’s important because it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you my beloved daughter, my beloved son, my beloved child. To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.

Prayer is the work of the relationship between us and God. It seems strange to have a one way conversation but God is listening and God is speaking. Sometimes it truly is the shape of finely ground silence. Sometimes it is in the understanding. Sometimes it is a feeling. Prayers are at times answered right away and prayers are answered in God’s timing not our own. 

God is doing something in and through us when we pray. God is speaking through others, through our situations, through our experiences. God is putting us in the place we are in order to guide us to carry on. 

Sometimes God is truly leading you to rest in God’s arms and promises. To not do all the things. God might be calling you into a new season of life to be active in participating in the work of God through being with the people and serving them. 

Jesus told the people and told all of us in Matthew 11:28 “Come, all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” Eat a snack, take a nap. Be still and know that I am God.

What if you heard God speak? What would it sound like to you to help you listen? Do you need a thunderous voice? Do you need sheer silence? 

God speaks always if we tune our ears and hearts to listen. 

Are you practicing the art of listening? Are you opening your heart to hear the Spirit of the Lord speaking? Are you taking time to pause. To listen, to know God, to spend time with your Creator? 

When we think about how we approach listening to another person many specialists call for these actions to create a way into the art of listening to another. So what if we thought about how we communicate effectively with others and translate it to our communication to God in prayer: 

1.  Make Eye Contact

Now this may seem hard but I think in terms of prayer it is about how you focus. For me I like to stare out into nature. To focus on creation. If my focus is all over sometime I need the posture of closing my eyes and bowing my head in order to allow God to work beyond what I see as distractions. 

2.  Don’t Interrupt

Do you need to allow God to speak more than you. I find this again hard to translate because for me prayer is about speaking but it seems like this text in Kings reminds us that we have to be quiet from time to time and breathe in God’s mercies. 

3.  Practice “Active Listening”

The art of listening isn’t simply about staying quiet 100% of the time, it’s also about asking questions.  These questions are for clarification, or for further explanation so that you can fully understand what the speaker is telling you. 

Maybe we need to clarify what it is we are feeling in the moment, how God is working through what we hear or wish to hear. 

4.  Show You Understand

This comes in how you respond after the prayer has finished with an Amen. For us in the Presbyterian church when someone is publically praying we listen in silence but in many other traditions there is a show of hearing and affirming those words verbally and physically. I have from time to time spoken affirmations of words prayed by others to actively participate in the corporate prayers in public places. 

5.  Listen Without Thinking

Our minds wander, I have found when I try to silently listen to God my mind goes everywhere that isn’t focused so I work through a phrase or word to recenter. 

6.  Create A Suitable Environment

Where do you go in your everyday life to have alone time with God. What time of day or what place in the house allows for you to give a moment of solitude with God. 

9.  Observe Other People

If you’re really serious about mastering the art of listening, why not observe other people?  One of the best ways to become a better listener is to observe the way people interact through prayer. Ask others what works for them. We are all different and even change throughout time. What worked before may not be the best way to create a space for you to open yourself to God. 

We are called to pray to build a relationship with God. Our next sermon series will be about Building Faith by looking at the Book of James. We will discover together what happens when we give ourselves over to God and live out faith. 

Today we once more call to God in Thankfulness. This time it is for conversations with God. It is God speaking. Elijah had every excuse to be distracted but also had no reason to do anything but listen. In the sheer silence where God’s voice spoke, Elijah understood as his heart was open to hear that the many things that could distract him and that he could think was the work of God was not but it was in the in-between that God rested in Elijah’s heart. 

It is in the in-between that God rests in our hearts. We are to allow God in our waking in our sleeping. In our worship, in our everyday lives. 

Paul calls the people to pray without ceasing, I think partially because we should know that God is always speaking to us. God is always present with us and we have the opportunity to feel that presence if we look around and listen to the silence. 

Thank you God for speaking. May we open ourselves to quieting ourselves and listening. To gain the energy and live out our purpose in you. 

Sing thank you Lord...

Sermon Thanking God for Feeding People, Mark 6:30-44

Sermon Preached on July 18th, 2021 at Stockbridge Presbyterian Church

Prayer : O Holy Spirit, fill us with the love of Christ. Feed us with the bread of heaven so that we will share with the world the saying that is true, I AM is with us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. 

Feeding the Five Thousand

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii[i] worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And all ate and were filled; 43 and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

THE WORD OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD

One of the things the church has always seemed to do well in, is in regards to food. The Church over the many centuries seems to have taken the food part of Jesus to heart and created so much culture around the act of eating. One of the first several comments after my first worship with you all  was, “wait until we really get back together and do potlucks” you will gain a good 10 pounds. There is an abundance in our gatherings and eating that is reminiscent of this day of Jesus teaching the people and having them stay where they are to be fed beyond the words he said but his actions of feeding others. And though it’s strange to be in our situation right now it makes those moments that much more precious. 

Have you ever been somewhere and there are so many people you just aren’t sure everyone will be fed? Where the simple miracle of enough has been provided in order for all to have had the chance to eat?

Mark’s Gospel has not one but two different stories of Jesus teaching and feeding the people gathered there. This text of Mark 6 has Jesus feeling compassion over the people who yearn for spiritual food and though he is tired and is trying to get away, goes to the people and teaches well into the evening. The disciples saw their groaning bodies in need of food and tried to get Jesus to send them away to go get food on their own. Jesus, however, asks them what they could gather up in terms of food. And a boy’s lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish are gathered and after all ate and were satisfied 12 baskets of leftovers were taken up. To those who heard the account they would have connected the 5 loaves to the Books of Moses and the 12 baskets as the 12 tribes of Israel. That the bread of heaven that satisfies the hungry heart and the needs of the body are in Jesus for the people of God. 

In Mark 8 there is yet another account of Jesus being with a large crowd, 4000 this time and Jesus sees their hunger after they were with him for 3 days and Jesus once more gets the disciples to gather up information about what they had with them. This time seven loaves and a few small fish, all ate and were satisfied and seven baskets were filled with the leftovers. Jesus once more does an incredible miracle only the significance of numbers is around the seven. Seven denotes the days of creation and completion and that Jesus is for ALL the world. The four thousand is the points of the compass reminding us to go out in all directions to share the good news. 

There are a few things we can take from the passage of Jesus feeding the people that shows how our thanks continues beyond words. 

It starts with COMPASSION. In the greek this word means a gut feeling, something that gets to you and you can help but be active. For the greeks the seat of emotion wasn’t just the heart but also guts (the liver, kidneys, stomach). We have all had sinking feelings or gut reactions to things and it was the same for Jesus. Many times he was moved to compassion for the people and changed course in order to meet the immediate needs of others. 

For Jesus it starts with just seeing the people in the distance, his gut told him to stop his direction and place himself with the people. His gut told him in the other feeding story to think about their physical needs. 

I know so many people that have great compassion and live by the words and actions of Jesus, those who are particularly good at feeding others. Sometimes that feeding others comes into incredible hospitality for those they know and love. Some come from the incredible heart they have for particular communities. For Stockbridge the desire and compassion for those in need filled with so much heart for those who need their needs met. The relationship that Stockbridge has with families at The Mill, the Goodness and Groceries program, Joseph’s Pantry---all focused in some ways on just letting others know they are loved and worthy through a simple act of giving them food to satisfy the groaning in their inward parts in order to be able to get through the day. 

Jesus felt compassion for the people and we are called to Thank God for that compassion and desire for God to feed the people, for God to put that compassion in us to help feed the people. Thanking God for the abundance and grace we have to not be hungry but be able to fulfill our needs as they arise. 

Pastor Karoline Lewis talked about the compassion Jesus felt towards the crowd, towards each of us. 

Because as much as Jesus knew how lost the crowd felt, Jesus also knows how lost and lonely you can feel. Who has compassion for you? Who tends to you? Who makes sure you are protected and safe and loved and nurtured? Perhaps one of the reasons that we feel lonely in ministry is that we don’t allow ourselves to be the recipients of compassion, to be the objects of someone’s passion, to acknowledge that we merit attention. Think about that for just a minute, maybe longer — what it feels like to have compassion for another and then what it feels like that you are, amazingly, the other. It feels good, doesn’t it? Too good, probably. And so we back away. Make excuses. Sabotage the situation. Why?

Let’s face it. We’d rather feel lost than trust that we are worthy. We’d rather feel sorry for ourselves than believe we deserve relationships that are truly reciprocal. We’d rather do things on our own to prove our power than step into places of potential powerlessness.

It’s one thing to recognize that someone has compassion for you. It’s quite another to allow those acts of compassion to unfold in your world. 

Jesus recognizes our worthiness and supplies the needs of others. For this story, it was right then, without any time passing. Jesus didn’t do for others to make himself self-important or bring vast attention as he felt compassion. He simply did and charged the disciples with getting the food gathered and Jesus did the blessing and then once more sent the disciples, the followers to send out the food and then gather up what was left. 

We are called to be those disciples. To feed others and help do the work of Christ to the people who are in need. We too are supposed to open ourselves up to the vulnerability of being served and satisfied as well. 

It is important to note that ALL were filled and there was such an incredible abundance leftover. This is the economy of God, that all can and will be satisfied. There was no difference in those hearing Jesus that day. We don’t know their status in life and what they were able to provide the crowd. Jesus knew what was around and allowed for that offering to take place to witness to the larger story of the greatness and goodness of God. 

Before Jesus fed the people he fed their souls. It was the compassion he felt for the people because he realized that they were like “sheep without a shepherd.” This part of the text follows closely to the beauty of who God is in Psalm 23

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..”

In Mark, Jesus shepherds the people and gathers them so that they will not want, meaning they will not be hungry (spiritually and in that moment physically). 

“He maketh me lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters.”

Mark has the people 5000 men along with women and children sit in the grass by the Sea of Galilee.

“He restores my soul.” 

The people hear the teaching of Jesus and though the disciples interrupted with the needs of the people there is a sense of yearning just to be in the presence of Jesus and they are not crying out for food and are satisfied with what is before them. 

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Jesus was teaching the people about the Lord and though the teaching part was not the importance in the story we know that Jesus taught the people in parables, in stories about the abundance and new way of being in the Lord. We know that Jesus gave the people the beatitudes and blessings of the people in their various stages and places in life. Jesus is the comfort of the people and is the “God is with us”

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

These lines are about that table fellowship, the words are in many ways a reflection of what Jesus did at the Last Supper and the words of Mark 6 of Jesus blessing and breaking the bread to share among the people are another part of that special Eucharist, communion moment. That breaking of bread and pouring of cup is once more the abundance of God and that ALL people can come to Jesus and be filled. 

Psalm 23 ends with: 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. 

Jesus having compassion on the people, having compassion on us is that goodness and mercy with us throughout our lives, without condition. A love like no other, a connection to the Almighty God who not only feeds our soul but provides a world that feeds our bodies. A God who calls us to not only be a place of worship that feeds the souls of others but to reach out in love to those in need and feed them. 

Thank you God for feeding us. Through your word, through your wisdom, through your truth, through your abundance. 

SING THANK YOU, LORD.

Sermon on Thanking God in the Storm Job 38:1-11

 Sermon Preached on June 21, 2021 at Stockbridge Presbyterian Church

Thanking God in the Storm 

In this Summer of Thankfulness we thought about being thankful in all things. Last week we explored thankfulness in exile. Today we are looking at thanking God in the storm of life. Scripture is filled with stories of men and women that live out the storms of life and come through with God’s help. One of the greatest stories of struggle through the storm of life is the story of Job.  There is a whole book of the Bible dedicated to a story of a person that has trials that seem too much.

 

 The story states that Job was an upstanding, wealthy man that loved God and was faithful. This story is ultimately about our call to withstand the storms of life and know that God does not will disease, destruction, or suffering but that it happens and we are called to be thankful to God for what we have and know that the storms of life are temporary. 

 

The events of Job’s strife were compacted within the story. Scholars looked through the events of Job’s story and asserted that it was probably a period of 9 months. In that time it was devastating nonetheless. Job lost his livelihood from a fire that destroyed his sheep and crops, he lost his sons to a roof collapse, and then his body was filled with painful sores from head to toe. His friends saw this storm in his life and encouraged him to just give up his faith. Job didn’t hold back his feelings about his situation to God and in his prayer language he exclaimed and cursed his own life believing maybe if he wasn’t alive this would never happen. 

 

Hear now from God the answer of Job’s cries as I read Job 38:1-11 from the Message Translation. 

 

 

38 1-11 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:

“Why do you confuse the issue?

    Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?

Pull yourself together, Job!

    Up on your feet! Stand tall!

I have some questions for you,

    and I want some straight answers.

Where were you when I created the earth?

    Tell me, since you know so much!

Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!

    Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?

How was its foundation poured,

    and who set the cornerstone,

While the morning stars sang in chorus

    and all the angels shouted praise?

And who took charge of the ocean

    when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?

That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,

    and tucked it in safely at night.

Then I made a playpen for it,

    a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,

And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.

    Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’

 

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. 

PRAYER

Job was giving God all these questions about his existence and the storms of his life. He wanted to know the “Why” of it all. Isn’t that so relatable. When the storms of our lives blow around us and it feels like we keep getting knocked down again and again we question the purpose of it all. We try to explain our lot in life and the strange things that happen as something that we did wrong or a punishment of sorts. But this world is filled with people like Job who did nothing particularly evil or wrong but had tragedy knock him around. All this strife and it seemed like there was no answer from God as to what was going on. 

 

But then Job’s story comes to this point where God answers through the storm. The answer isn’t necessarily clear about why or how but the answer is a creation story. God is answering about what has been set in motion in the world and how God is not going to always answer on our terms but God’s answer is a reminder of God’s holy presence in the midst of the storm. 

 

Max Lucado put it this way: God flood the sky with queries, and Job cannot help but get the point: only God defines God. You’ve got to know the alphabet before you can read, and God tells Job, “You don’t even know the ABCs of heaven, much less the vocabulary.” For the first time, Job is quiet. Silenced by a torrent of questions. … Notice the change. Before he heard God, Job couldn’t speak enough. After he heard God, he couldn’t speak at all.” (Max Lucado. For The Tough Times. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006, pp. 59, 61).

 

God speaking to Job is powerful in itself. Job didn’t have the things that were taken restored so there is the feeling of continued sorrow and powerlessness. But Job got to meet God in this answer. He was learning about new questions in life. Not the “why me” but the “how will I respond to this storm in life?” 

 

In our prayers we are called not only to talk, but to listen. That is the reminder from the text that Max Lucado drew out, that Job said so much but forgot to listen. 

 

We all have experienced some time of “storm” in our life. 

Rev. Dr. Tony Evans a professor and African-American theologian  speaks about the storms in life and states, “At any moment you are probably either in a storm, just heading out of a storm, or about to experience one.” 

 

There are times in our lives, like Job, that we are in the muck of a heavy storm that pulls us under and makes us just want to give up in life. What is the point? This is where the beauty of God stepping in to speak in Job’s story comes.  There were all these people watching Job’s lot in life and how he was trying to navigate all the tragedy and God spoke to him about who God is. 

 

I know in some ways I wouldn’t want to hear that type of answer but it really is the best answer for navigating the storms of life. God put the world into motion, God created calm in chaos, God created beauty from ashes. God was there at the beginning, God is present always, and God will always BE. 

 

So who are we to question? Well, we are ones who God loves and desires our questions. God didn’t condemn Job but threw a lot more questions back about humanity's role in creation and order. 

 

There is a strange contradiction in these words from God. In one sense the world is orderly and in another tragedy doesn’t always have a reason. In this story we could see the adversary, Satan, who is introduced in the beginning of Job that challenges God’s faithful people who prosper and of course would thank God. But there are things that happen, literal storms that wipe out towns, illness that separates people from their loved ones who die with little contact, unexplained death of a loved one, and so much more. These things are not the will of God but the promise is that God will not leave us alone in the storm. In Romans 8 it says that, “God works together all things for good…” that means that it isn’t the will of God for suffering and storms but God will work things together and good will come out of the tragedy. 

 

That is the call to thankfulness in the storm. Thankful that God is with us, thankful for the people who surround us. There are big storms and the tiny little ones that come and go. God is with us through it all and sometimes the answer to our prayers is to know that the Creator of all things loves you, is with you, and desires you to keep asking more than why but start asking “How…” 

 

We see that in Jesus. He could have started and ended his prayers to God with “WHY?” as he suffered but instead thanked God, blessed others, and gave us another way to look at the world. As a world of creation and created beings redeemed back to God. 

 

Today we celebrate Communion. In this strange way we are still storming through the pandemic. We are called to remember Christ’s love in the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup. 

 

We are called to engage in the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before a known and purposeful suffering was about to occur. Jesus was preparing his people, preparing us all to engage with Christ and remember. Just like God told Job to remember what God did, we are called to remember what God did, what Christ is continually doing, and then what is our response to God. 

 

We are called to remember, to thank, and then to live out our thankfulness in the storm, out of the storm, or as we enter the storms of life. 

 

Pray with me as I share a prayer from the Masai in Tanzania. 

 

Father, thank you for your revelation about death    

And Illness 

And sorrow.

 

Thank you for speaking so plainto us, for call us all friends and hovering over us; for extending your arms out to us. 

 

We cannot stand on our owl we fall into death without you. We fall from faith, left to our won. We are really friendliess without you.

 

Your extended arms fill us with joy, expressing love, love caring and caring, asking and receiving our trust. 

 

You have our trust, Father, and our faith, with our bodies and all that we are and possess. 

 

We fear nothing when with you, safe to scratch out and help others, those troubled in faith, those troubled in body. 

 

Father, help us to do with our bodies what we proclaim, that our faith be known to you and to others, and be effective in all the world. AMEN.