A Year of Being Kind blog – Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Being of Service, Ecumenically
I am pleased to say that I was of service today. In a big way. In an ecumenical way.
Let me go back to the beginning. A little recap. Remember back a few weeks, when I met with Father Dennis and with several other religious leaders from the different houses of worship in Morton Grove. Father Dennis asked me whether I’d preach a sermon for this Interfaith, Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve service. Of course, I said!
I love to preach! Absolutely love it. And with such a great text to preach from? Psalm 100 is an absolutely marvelous resource. You had better believe that I took advantage of the sermon helps and commentaries I had at my disposal.
Originally, when I first started blocking out my sermon about a week and a half ago, I had intended to preach on Psalm 100:5, “For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” I truly wanted to come up with a good sermon on that verse. But—as I prayed and did more and more research on this verse, I had some kind of problem. Grrr. I got nothing.
Maddening! Oooo! Here I was, on Monday morning, and I just could not write this sermon for Wednesday evening. Using Psalm 100, verse 5, that is.
On Monday morning, I finally started considering whether I might be coming at the sermon the wrong way. I read the Scripture text over again, with an open, receptive mind. And Psalm 100, verse 3, jumped out at me. “It is He who made us, and we are His; we are God’s people, and the sheep of His pasture.” Wow!! Bam!!
And the sermon almost wrote itself. Seriously. We are “All Sheep of God’s Pasture.”
I very much enjoyed preaching it, too. I hope and I pray that I was able to take the Word of God and transform it into a message that would reach hearts, trigger thoughts, and give glory to God.
God, thanks for giving me ears to hear Your voice, and a heart to continue following after You. Thanks for allowing me to serve you on the 50th anniversary of the Interfaith Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve service here in Morton Grove.
Thanks be to God for God’s marvelous gifts to each of us, every day. Let us make each day a Thanksgiving day, and each meal a time to give thanks to God, the Shepherd of us all.
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