Your Audience
| the question The forecast promised rain in the wilderness outside Stockton, Illinois. So I brought boots, wool hat, mittens, down coat. April is fickle. I came to Sabbath Place, a silent cabin with loud refrigerator hum, to work On a sermon for Easter. I felt obligated to hike trails before the deluge Of words onto screen. The sun shone as heavy thoughts gathered gray overhead. Surrounded by trees, bright birds of song, white-tailed deer bounding, joy elusive. “Who are you trying to please?” out of the sky, not blue the question halted me, the cedar standing alone. Bare, deciduous forest defining what is tree. No evergreens of like kind. Tears surprised my cheeks, the rain an impossible Answer: everyone. The cedar grows backbone to heaven Regardless. I, too, reach toward an audience of One. -Renée, April 3, 2019 “How can you believe when you receive praise from each other but don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?” John 5:44 (CEB)“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” Ps. 46:10 (NRSV) |
| Bulletin: 4/7 Order of Service: 4/7 Sermon: God’s Economy: How Weeping Turns to Shouting |