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

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