Good Morning, Church!
This is the day the Lord has made and WE rejoice and WE are glad in it. (Psalm
118:24)
For those who do not know me, I am Reverend Elizabeth Marrero, aka Pastor Liz.
And another one of my favorite Psalm readings is, I rejoice with those who said to
me, Let us go up to the house of the Lord. (Psalm 122:1) So, here we are.
BUT, before we go into the Word, let’s have a word of prayer:
Holy Spirit, thou art welcomed into this place. We welcome You.
Fill this place, this space, and our lives with your presence.
Open our eyes to see, our ears to hear,
Our understanding to receive and Warm our hearts to believe.
Now, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
Be pleasing in your sight
O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Soon you will notice that I, typically, begin our Sunday lesson with a question and
that, as we progress, I would be challenging you with what I call A Homework.
(WINK). That is something to take home, read, and reflect upon during your
personal time in the presence of God and delight on it.
Last year, for Valentine’s Day, I was searching for something sweet, funny, and for
something delightful, something that would make us smile, or probably even
giggle. So, here is what I found, and you be the judge;
A seasoned couple went out to dine to a fancy place.
The wife, seeking to rekindle some old spark
leans forward and, in a sexy way, looks at her husband and tells him,
Tell me something that will make my heart race.
To what the husband replied with, “I forgot my wallet.”
SO, here goes a question, or more,
What do you delight on?
What captivates your attention?
What makes your heart race, your stomach flutter,
and your eyes sparkle?
In other words, what do you delight on in such a way that makes your body reacts
in a certain way?
Yesterday, my youngest son, Josue, came to visit. We talked about his spiritual
journey, his calling in life, and about his work experiences. He shared about his
wants, desires, and delights. He shared about challenges, struggles, and decisions.
And, for each story he shared, there was a reaction, mostly a laughter.
In Romans 7:15, the apostle Paul shares with us about his desires, wants and
decisions. And he shares about how each – the wants and doings – fight each
other.
Paul’s reflection on the war - between delight in God’s law and the inclination
toward sin – is not exactly the easiest scripture to jump into in the middle of the
Fourth of July weekend.
Can we celebrate, give thanks, and be proud even while we are concerned about
where we are and were we are going these days? Can we enjoy ourselves even
when we have some reservations about certain . . . things?
Paul’s honest and blunt assessment of his struggle between what he wants to do
and what he ends up doing is an invitation to all of us to slow down, pay
attention, and turn toward the work of grace in our lives . . . the Grace of God.
In Acts 16 (16-40) we read the story of Paul and his disciple Silas being in prison.
They did something that upset someone powerful and had them thrown in jail.
But the most amazing part of the story is that while they are in prison, they chose
to sing and to praise God.
I am pretty sure that, in their body, in their physical state, the least they wanted
to do was sing, praise, and worship while being held in a cold, rocky, dirty prison.
Most likely they had been beaten and whipped before they were thrown in jail.
YET, they made a choice. They chose to delight and to rejoice in the God of their
eternal salvation regardless of on their earthly fate.
In Romans 7:22, Paul wrote, For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self
That was his and Silas’ secret for joy, Delight.
My son shared that, last year, while praying, he received, three (3) words from
God: Wait, Trust, & Believe. He says that he is now in the season of learning to
Wait. He is aware that by learning to Wait, Trust and Believe will follow.
At 250 years, we, Americans, find ourselves celebrating our nation’s ideals while
honestly confronting our failures, discovering - like Paul - that true hope comes
not from self-reliance but from being rescued and transformed by Christ.
Paul wraps this section of his letter to the Romans with verses 24 and 25 writing,
Wretched person that I am!
Who will rescue me from this limited body?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Paul’s words express the believer’s total dependence on the grace, power,
and deliverance of Jesus Christ.
What are you/we struggling with?
Paul and Silas pressed on through worship. We are not told how long they were
singing and worshiping. INSTEAD, what we are told is that their worship was SO
powerful that the prison doors flew opened and the prisoners chains came loose.
Regardless of what it is, Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us to throw off everything that
hinders [us] and [to throw off] the sin that so easily
entangles us. And to run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
[how?] 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
This is the word of the Lord for the people of God.
Thanks be to God!