Buried in our brains are amazing things that we don't even remember.
The other day I was thinking about the upcoming sermon series for lent which is entitled, "about a loving God." I was thinking, what do you say about a loving God. Well, one of the answers that I want to talk about is, "what does it mean to love yourself." Then my brain went like this: love self, love others, love God. A nice quaint sermon outline. And I was whisked away to a part of my brain that I have not accessed for years.
I was in seminary. I was 25 years old. I was supposed to preach and was pretty excited about my sermon outline, love self, love others, love God. My pastor laughed at my outline and said, son, everyone has given that sermon. He did not mean any harm. He was a good man. Tall and slender, David was nearing retirement. He walked with a limp because he had been wounded during WW2 in the battle of the bulge. He was a war hero who came home and went into the ministry.
David hooked me up with one of his friends named Cal McCarter. Cal was the pastor at the Honor Heights UMC in Muskogee. One Sunday I was supposed to fill in for Cal as he was out of the pulpit. I don't remember what the sermon was about, some youthful, guilt laden collection of enthusiasm I am sure. What I do remember about driving to Muskogee and back that day is that it was turtle time of the year. For some reason, along this one stretch of highway, hundreds of turtles were crossing the road. Well, as you can imagine, not all of them crossed. It was dodge the turtle, turtle hockey, and turtle soup.
Oh yes, back to another part of my brain. What will the sermons be about this lent? About a loving God. What would you like to hear about a loving God?
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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5 comments:
There is a stretch of road just outside Jim's hometown where the turtles cross each year. I can certainly appreciate that recollection from your past; however, we were never on our way to preach a sermon with a time-element involved, so no turtle soup was involved as we passed that stretch in the road. :)
M.A.
As I think more about it, I realize that the problem with that stretch of road certain times of the year was with frogs, not turtles. I must have been wanting to relate to your story too much! Ha!
Okay, I probably should just have my own blog because I can't seem to refrain from commenting on just about everything you write. And I don't want to quit reading yours because they are so thought provoking at times. But your forgotten story reminded me of one of mine. When my husband and I lived in Edmond, OK, he took me and our three little girls out to a country road to see what he had seen on his way home from work--an "army" of tarantulas crossing the road. Hundreds if not thousands of them. I yelled at my husband not to stop the car. I could just imagine them crawling up the tires and finding a way in. It was an incredible sight to see but those were some of God's creatures that I did not love. Although, we did capture one and take it home and kept it as a pet for a few weeks. Don't ask me why.
I'd like to know how God loved his enemies and how we're supposed to love ours. Is it supposed to feel like the way we love our family and friends?
When I read your blog, my mind inevitably goes straight to the question of how our church could attract more people my age – my fiancé and I are in our 20s. But when I finally stopped thinking about it and said a prayer about it, I realized that I am the church and that I want to begin attracting people my age to WCC.
We have many friends who don’t go to any church and I think they would all say they have been hurt by the church in some way. I am going to start inviting them and praying for them.
So if you’re going to preach about a loving God during Lent, maybe you could tell them that His love is nothing like it has been represented by a lot of Christians. You could say that Jesus came for the broken-hearted and that our church exists for the broken-hearted; that we’re sorry the church has been too broken to communicate the love of Christ the way He means it, but that we hope more people can see past the broken messengers to the real message and be healed by it.
Hopefully, my friends can hear that message, but even if they choose not to come or don’t come right away, I pray that God could help me communicate His love to the people around me. One thing I am confident about is that Woods Chapel is proud to be a hospital for the spiritually injured rather than a club for the religiously superior.
One of the amazing things for me is the patience of God's love. He loves us continuously, even if we forget Him or cannot love him back. He continually smothers us with love, inviting us to love him.
I think of the scene in the movie Good Will Hunting, where Robin Williams keeps telling Damon that what happened to him in life was not his fault. He kept saying it over and over, and Damon would go along at first, then become angry, and eventually broke down.
Gods love is like that. No matter how broken we are, or how bad we feel about ourselves, when we realize that Gods love is always there for us, we can succumb to his love and forget about the bad stuff in life.
DH
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