An Advent4 message on Matthew 1:18-25

Do you dream? Scientific studies suggest yes, you do. Everyone does. Every single night. Every time you sleep. For about two hours out of an eight-hour sleep cycle. If you think of the billions of people who have lived, throughout history, collectively they’ve had trillions and trillions of dreams.

Which is kind of tough to wrap your head around.

Many dreams are quickly forgotten, never making it to our conscious mind.
Some are remembered, for a time, perhaps shared with friends and family.
And precious few are written down and stay with us even longer.

What is it about dreams that make them memorable? That make them stick around long after they’ve originally been dreamed? Often it’s that they inspire something in the real world. Which makes them not just dream, but reality.

Today’s message highlights seven such dreams, and what they’ve inspired.

Sometimes dreams inspire song.  One hard day’s night in 1965 Paul McCartney found himself deep in slumber, composing a song while dreaming. When he awoke he quickly replicated the song on his piano and then wrote it down. It wasn’t a small musical fragment or just any tune, he composed the entire melody of a Beatle’s classic. All while deep in REM sleep.

Sir Paul was convinced he’d inadvertently copied the song, so he asked other musicians, for a month, whether they’d heard it before. When no else claimed it after a few weeks he figured the tune was his. These memorable chords were birthed, entirely, from dream.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…

Dreams can inspire story. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote for a living to support his family. That is until his case of writer’s block in 1886. For days he went about racking his brain for a plot.

Nothing would come.

Then one night he dreamed up a scene where a character, being pursued for a crime, took powder and became someone else. Right in front of his pursuers.

The dream jarred Stevenson so much he screamed in the middle of the night, causing his wife to wake him. “Why did you wake me?” he asked his wife. “I was dreaming a fine boogeyman tale.

In an era before typewriters and laptops, Stevenson then put pen to paper. And in less than six days he’d handwritten 64,000 words, a minor miracle at the time.

The book went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. The story even inadvertently coined a phrase still used to describe dual personalities, swinging between good and evil. The book? The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

And more often than you might think, dreams inspire science.

Such was the case with Niels Bohr. Known for his ability to decipher complex physics problems, Bohr set his sights on understanding the structure of the atom. But none of his configurations would fit. He was stumped. Then one night he went to sleep and began dreaming about atoms. He saw the nucleus of the atom, with electrons spinning around it, much as planets spin around the sun.

When waking the next morning Bohr immediately felt the vision was right. But he knew, as a scientist, he needed to validate the theory. His efforts soon yielded evidence of the atom’s design. Other scientists then replicated his findings. And before you know it Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery.  These days Bohr is considered the father of quantum mechanics.

And it all stemmed from a leap, in creative thinking, that stemmed from dream.

Sometimes dreams inspire society, coming to us while we’re still wide awake.

Martin Luther King Jr. had been using the language of dreams in sermons for several years before his famous 1963 speech. Given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, in front of 250,000 civil rights supporters, King initially spoke from prepared remarks.

Towards the end of his speech, friend and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson cried out “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” So he did. In it, he imagines a world of different design, where all people are treated as equal.

The speech later led to a slew of new legislation, including the 1960s Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Fair Housing Act. While we still haven’t arrived, in many ways, when it comes to issues of race in the US, the speech still stays with us. Still points us to a brighter future.

All because of the power of the language of dreams.

Dreams can inspire identity. Such was the case for Jacob, son of Isaac, brother to Esau. Jacob, after stealing his father’s blessing, and running from the brother he stole it from, a brother who was looking to kill him, had a dream. In this dream there was a ladder, set on earth. The ladder went straight up to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. In the dream God promised Jacob the land where he slept. And promised his offspring would be blessed.

Awakening from the dream Jacob’s fears had now been released. No longer scared, he now knew God’s plans. He then pursued God’s plans. Jacob found work, then married, having twelve children. Children who each became heads of their own family groups, later known as the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jacob dreamed, as inspired by God. A dream that helped birth a blessed people.

Dreams, sometimes, inspire trust. That definitely applies to Joseph, he of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Genesis records all sorts of dreams Joseph was part of. As a young man, he dreamed he’d one day rule over his brothers and parents. As you might guess when he shared that great with family it went over like a lead balloon. Not liking Joseph’s interpretation one bit, his brothers dropped him in a pit, leaving him alone, with no way out.

After being found, and then enslaved, Joseph then rose through the palace ranks. Eventually, he gained the trust of Pharaoh himself by interpreting a troubling dream Pharaoh had. Those seven frail cows who ate the seven fat cows in the dream? That means seven good years, of harvest, followed by seven bad years, of famine. Plan wisely, Joseph suggested.

Pharaoh did. And all that came to pass. With trust now gained, Joseph was able to provide for his family, fulfilling that first dream over a decade after having it.

Every-so-often, when the planets align, and the divine descends down among us, dreams inspire hope. Our final dream story begins with another Joseph. One engaged to a girl named Mary.

This Joseph, by all accounts, was a stand-up guy. He followed the customs of the day. When he and Mary were betrothed they still lived apart. And before getting married, before moving in together, before doing anything overly interesting Joseph learned, suddenly, mysteriously, his fiancée was with child.

And Joseph was not the daddy.

Uh oh.

It’s a storyline good enough for a telenovela.

Oh the thoughts that must have raced through his brain.
Mary’s explanation couldn’t have provided much solace.

Not wanting to disgrace his beloved, but now not wanting to commit to her either, Joseph made plans to quietly part ways.

With male enhancement, notwithstanding, you can revive your sexual viagra soft tabs supplements, help to better adjust your testosterone and unwind and slide into longer enduring, steamier sessions in the room. This is what has made the impotence buy cialis pharmacy medication so much in demand. With proper blood circulation in the penile region one might start feeling the pressure of hard erection propelling special info generic levitra online romantically towards a great pleasurable night. Sanvari is rich in levitra no prescription proteins, alkaloids and starch. This couldn’t have been the way it was supposed to be.
At least not the way Joseph thought it was supposed to be.

He’d found someone he cared for.

They began to make plans.
Plans for their home.
Plans for their family.
Plans to celebrate.

Their life trajectory, as far as Joseph was concerned, had been all planned out.
And now *this*

Why me? Joseph must have wondered.

It is against this backdrop Joseph laid down his head to sleep.
It is under these circumstances when Joseph began to dream.

Dream
In it an angel came to him, calming his fears. The angel asked Joseph to take Mary as his wife. For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a Son, the angel continued.
Name him Jesus. For he will save his people from themselves.

All will be as spoken,
through the prophet,
A virgin shall conceive,
And bear a son.

And they shall name him Emmanuel.
Which means God is with us.

The angel then departed.
Joseph then awoke.

Joseph then did, as the angel of the Lord, advised.

And a new path, one that Joseph had never planned for, became clear.
A new path, that didn’t impact just –

One woman, or
One man, or
One family.

But left a lasting mark on so many more.

And for the rest of *that* story?
Tune in, Christmas Eve ?

Turn
Dreams have power. Power to take us from our current reality, as great or as awful as it may seem, and lead us to a place so much better.

Dreams inspire song, story, science, society, identity, even trust.

Facing moments of trouble, problems with seemingly no solution, divinely inspired dreams do something marvelous.

They inspire hope.

It is that hope that Joseph woke up with.
It is that hope that enabled him to press on.

Close
Do you dream? Yes, of course, you do. Every single night.

This year may your dreams be of so much more than just visions of sugarplums or even a white Christmas.

Lord, show us your dreams,
Reveal to us your Savior,
Awaken us from our slumber.

Refreshed,
Full of hope.

Not just for today. Or tomorrow. But forever.  Amen.

Shortly after moving to Iowa our family implemented a new rule: screen-free Sundays. The ideal was good, I think.  My wife and I hoped to help our two children learn and maintain healthy electronic device habits.

Everything in moderation. Or something like that.

Besides, we had science and best practices to draw from.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has this nifty approach to raising healthy kids using 5, 2, 1, 0.   Each day they recommend:

• 5 fruits or veggies,
• 2 or less hours of recreational screen time,
• 1+ hour of physical activity, and
• 0 sugary drinks

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And Sunday is the sabbath, after all. It’s a holy day. A sacred day. A day of rest.

Maybe that means resting from our devices too. If there’s one day a week we should be able to find balance in life, well, in theory, Sunday should be it.

As you might imagine the transition, to screen-free Sundays, was not without hurdles. The kids, used to their devices, were less than enthused. Tho we stuck with this ideal, relying on the best information available to us, our hopes of being good parents, and the notion of sabbath to guide us through.

We’d done our homework.
Decision made.
Rule implemented.
And that, in theory, should be that.

After a month or two of strictly adhering to screen-free Sundays, the concept seemed to have stuck. Our two shorties were playing more outside, playing house inside, splashing in the hot tub.  Generally enjoying screen-free life, one day a week.

But then the NFL football season hit. And we wanted to watch our beloved Bears play. So we did.

Then our nine-year-old daughter expressed interest in having a family movie night. It turns out Sunday evening was the best fit for our weekly schedule. So we did.

The kids also never really stopped asking to watch screens on Sundays either.

When Graham started asking if he could play a Mario video game with pops, which seemed entirely reasonable to this particular video game enthusiast, I knew the little dude had my number.

The more our kids bugged us about Sunday screens the more Kathi and I had to ponder. Did it make sense to be so rigid with our strict Sunday sabbath rule?

As parents the American Pediatric Association was on our side, right?
As people of faith we have Sabbath ideals of rest on our side, right?
We should just stick with our rules, they must be good ones, right?

Over time we became less and less sure.

Synagogue
The Luke 13 narrative also has to do with which activities should, or should not, happen on a sacred day. While Jesus taught at Saturday synagogue, a crippled woman appeared before Christ. She was bent over; unable to stand straight.

Jesus then approached her.
He then spoke with her.
And laid healing hands on her.

Immediately she stood straight.
Immediately she began praising God.

She had, after all, just been healed. In the words of Christ, she had been set free from the bondage that held her.

And then everyone cheers because a beloved child of God has been made whole, right?

Not exactly.

Sabbath
Instead, the leader of the synagogue begins to trash talk Christ to the gathered crowd. Jesus had healed, on the sabbath. On the day of rest.

Jesus, in this leader’s eyes, had not kept the Sabbath day holy.
Jesus, in this leader’s eyes, had worked, healing the sick.
Jesus, in this leader’s eyes, should have healed some other day of the week.

A rule is a rule is a rule, after all, right?

The leader’s response makes sense, in a way. When we commit to preserving the positives of our faith we often set up rules. We then desire to obey the rules, to protect the faith. Which can sometimes make us resist new ideas. Particularly if the new idea represents a greater good.

Like reaching out to heal another.

Intent
Christ knew of that very human rule-based tendency, and Christ responded to it.
He then pointed out that each person gathered there gave their animals water to keep them well. And if caring for animals, on a day of rest, is ok, how much more important is caring for people needing to be made whole?

The story is a showdown between –
– tradition, and the intention behind it;
– traditions of the past, and freeing people for a better future;
– laws based on obedience, and a gospel grounded in love.

Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.

That includes worship. And rest. And caring for one another. Just as Christ cares so deeply for us.

Redux
Our family still does screen-free Sunday.  And our kids still play outside, play house inside, and splash in the hot tub.  It’s a nice, relaxing day.  But it looks a little different now than what we first had planned.

We watch Sunday football, together.
We watch Sunday night murder mysteries, together.
We play a bit of Sunday Mario, together.

We realized at some point, that screens weren’t our biggest sabbath day problem.
It was the isolation, from each other, that they caused.
We realized that, ultimately, is what we needed healing from.

Let me encourage you to remember the sabbath, and keep it holy.

Lord knows we need to worship.
Lord knows we need our rest.

But don’t honor the Sabbath strictly from a sense of obligation.
Or by merely following rules.

Keep the sabbath holy by being with each other, in Christian community.
Keep the sabbath holy by caring for each other, when needs arise.
Keep the sabbath holy by spending time, with beloved friends.

With beloved family.

For in keeping Sunday sacred we honor our creator.

A creator that desires nothing less, than for each of us, to be made whole. Amen.

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• Increases social and emotional IQ
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• Lowers the risk of weight gain, heart disease, diabetes and inflammation

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Getting enough sleep is so important many medical professionals consider it as vital as regular exercise and eating a balanced diet for optimal well-being.

Yet for all these great benefits, when it comes to how long we rest our head on the pillow, many of us don’t get enough of it. A CDC study from 2016 found that over 1 in 3, or 35% of Americans, don’t get the recommended minimum of seven hours of sleep, a night, on a regular basis.

And a separate CDC study finds that 70% of Americans report not getting enough sleep at least once a month. Which makes for an awful lot of us that struggle with this particular issue, at least on occasion.

Sleep stories
To learn more about how sleepless nights affect people, I posted a message on my Facebook feed two days ago, asking for personal stories about sleep deprivation. Responses came pouring in; it seems most everyone had something to share. Here’s a bit of what people posted.

Heads up that many of these are pretty funny ?

Kids
Some restless stories involve parents and their young children.

When her daughter Callie was an infant Lori remembers husband Tony wearing a polo shirt inside out, to work. He’d even fixed the collar like it was right side out. Neither of them noticed until he got home that night.

Amanda, who had a newborn and a toddler at the time, one morning only shaved one leg.

Jonna remembers one night her son, who was four or five got up in the middle of the night, staggered down the hall, opened the lid to the garbage can, and proceeded to pee in it. She was laughing so hard she didn’t have a chance to stop him ?

Adults
Other stories involve people just trying to make it through the day. Pam somehow fell asleep in high school band class. While the trumpet section played right behind her. How is that even possible?

Trish was tired enough, one night, that when she finally fell asleep, she was still eating French fries. With one hanging out of her mouth. Now that’s a good look.

Judy was so tired once she was convinced she’d inhaled a nail clipper. Convinced enough to call an ambulance at 3am, ride to the hospital, and get X-rays. Reflecting back she jokes that doctors probably should have tested her for illicit chemicals. Instead, medical staff gave her a clean bill of health and suggested she go home. Their prescription? Get some sleep.

Thinking about what sleep deprivation has looked like for her, Keri Carstens, coolly replied, “I plead the fifth” ?

School
A couple of the stories people shared are from divinity school, where future clergy oft pull crazy hours to get through.

Pastor Kim, who I went to seminary with, remembers taking Greek, that was our very first divinity class. To learn Greek she’d get up every morning, at 4am, to prepare. One evening, after staying up late, the alarm went off, predictably at 4. So she woke up, on less than four hours sleep, stumbled downstairs, and poured herself a cup of coffee. She then sat down in front of her computer and took a big swig of the coffee. It was only then when she realized she’d instead poured an entire cup of Jack Daniels whiskey. Yikes! Suffice to say she was awake after that.

Seminarian Steve remembers this one time, after being extremely sleep deprived, when he completed five semesters of grad school ?

Poetic
Other sleep deprivation stories hold truths within them downright poetic.

Jess, in a pre-smartphone, pre-GPS era, worked nights as a nurse. One morning, as she slept, her husband decided to take the kids to Denny’s for a grand slam breakfast. Looking for direction, he woke Jess up to ask her how to get there. Jess then gave turn-by-turn directions, which, when followed took hubby and the kids all over Cincinnati. But nowhere close to Denny’s. When Jess woke up later she didn’t remember a thing.

And then there’s friend Mike, an ultramarathon runner. Which means he runs races of between 50 and 100 miles. Which amazes me every single time he tells me of the sport. Recently, after running for over 35 hours straight Mike was scrolling through photos he’d taken during the race. Every one of the pictures, as far as he could tell, were messed up. Some were extremely pixelated, others mixed with the previous picture, still others blurry. He was certain his phone camera had failed. After a night’s sleep, he looked again and all the photos were fine. He’d thought his camera had lost focus. Instead the lack of focus, due to sleep deprivation, came from within.

Teaching, Healing, Sabbath
Jesus, too, knows the importance of rest.
Rest just not for the body, but for the soul.
Christ knows what’s at stake when we don’t get it.
And knows the good that comes when we do.

Before today’s Matthew 11 text Jesus had been busy teaching and healing. Busy sending the twelve out to teach, and heal, in his name.

Right after today’s text Jesus spoke of the importance of being nourished on the Sabbath. And spoke of the disciples having enough energy for the road ahead.

Between all this teaching and healing and Sabbath day feeding sits the text we are to reflect on today from Matthew 11:25-30.

Identity
It is at this point Jesus thanks the Father, and makes a claim:

He is the Son of God.

This identity is revealed, slowly, throughout scripture.
Throughout the arc of human history.
Sometimes, rather slowly, even now.

Initially, the Son of God is revealed to those without.

Christ’s identity is revealed first to –

Mother Mary, who sings the Magnificat, praising a God who fills the hungry with good things.

The woman at the well, who has had not one husband, but five. She seeks to drink not just well water, but the living waters Christ offers her that day.

Infants and children. Let the children come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
The identity, of Jesus, as the Son of God, first comes to those –

Without food,
Without social status,
Without a full voice in the world around them.

In this Jesus takes aim at a cultural assumption as true then as it is now: that wisdom belongs to the conventionally wise. Belongs to the conventionally intelligent. Belongs to the cultural elite.

Alas, this assumption, per today’s text, per so much other scripture, simply is not so.

Wisdom comes from Christ.
And it is for all.

Rest
Christ then asks us,
Whoever we may be,
To come to Him.

We, the people that are weary.
We, the people of heavy burdens.

Regardless of age, or gender, or socioeconomic status.
Regardless of who we are, or are not, in this world.

It is in the coming, to Christ, as tired and as burdened as we may be, that the gift is then offered:

Rest.
Christ offers rest.

Rest for we, the 70%, that don’t always get enough physical sleep.
Rest for we, looking for directions to be fed.
Rest for we, looking for focus on our journey.
Rest for we, the 100%, that don’t always get enough spiritual reprieve.

We are not at our best when we are restless. God knows.

When we receive this rest –
We take Christ’s yoke upon us, pairing ourselves with the divine.
Not giving up our burdens.
The mechanisms of life don’t magically go away.
Instead, we share those burdens, with One well-equipped to carry them.

For it is in this sharing, of our burdens, with Christ, where we learn wisdom.
Not from books, or degrees.
But from the Source, of all that is.

For Christ is gentle, and humble, in heart.

We too, are called to be gentle.
With each other,
With ourselves.

We too, are called to be humble.
With each other,
And before our God.

This world will hit you, upside the head, at times.
This is most certainly true.
It will challenge you.
It will exhaust you.
It will make you question, on occasion, why it is that you’re here.

In these moments, and in good times too –
Come to Christ, you who are weary.
And Christ will share your burden,
Giving you strength for the journey.

Come to Christ, you who are restless.
For rest is granted,
Wisdom imparted,
Gently,
Humbly.

For Christ –
Offers us wisdom, gentleness, and humility,
Offers us rest that we so desperately need.
Renews our minds, renews our bodies,

For the –
Occasionally quirky,
Oft funny,
Long, winding,
Magnificently beautiful
Road ahead. Amen.

Investing in the US stock market, over the course of a lifetime, has historically been a financially fruitful way to grow your money. While annual returns vary, sometimes wildly, you can expect, on average, over the course of your life, about a 7% yearly return after adjusting for inflation.

Financial advisors generally offer a few rules of thumb to maximize your returns:

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• During bad times celebrate as well. Why? Because your future returns, invariably, will look better than they do right now.
• Arguably the most important one – stay in the stock market. You only get those great lifetime returns if you stay in the game. Study after study shows that cashing out of the market lowers returns, long term, sometimes drastically so.

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Many of us lived through stock market highs and lows earlier this century with the Great Recession. In early 2008 the Dow Jones was over 13,000. After a series of high-profile bankruptcies and high levels of home foreclosures, by the end of that year, the Dow had dipped below 8,000. Stocks had lost almost half their value in less than nine months.

I remember hearing of friends pulling their money out of the stock market during that historic low. My wife and I opted to stay put and stayed invested, hoping for brighter days ahead. So glad we did. Because come back the market did, as always.

And that’s about all we’ll talk of the stock market in this message. My hope is to keep at last a few of you at least somewhat awake ?

Faithfulness
Today we continue our sermon series on fruits of the spirit, landing this week on the fruit of faithfulness.

Jesus, who spoke of money and possessions more than any other topic, uses a financial allegory to help us understand what faithfulness looks like, in the flesh.

The parable, from Matthew 25:14-30, is about a wealthy man going away for a while, that entrusts three workers with his property. The NRSV translation uses the term talents to describe the amount; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one.

Talents, as an English word, makes for a fitting pun, even if it isn’t in the original Greek. We’ll get back to those kinds of talents a bit later.

For now, let’s focus on what a talent, biblically, is. It’s the equivalent of about six thousand days wages. Or between 15-20 years of work. In current US Dollars, with an annual salary of only $30,000, that’s $600,000. Just for one talent.

Story
So in this parable –

One person was entrusted with $600,000.
Another 1.2 million.
And another 3 million.

None of which is exactly chump change.

The person with 3 million put his money to work, making 3 million more.
The person with 1.2 million put his money to work, making 1.2 million more.
The person with 600k dug a hole in the ground, hiding the wealthy man’s money.

When the wealthy man returned –

The investor who’d started with 3 million now had a cool 6 mil. He gave it all to the manager.

The investor who’d started with 1.2 million now had an enviable 2.4 mil. He gave it all to the manager.

The hole-digger retrieved the 600k he’d been given from where it’d be buried, perhaps cleaned the dirt off it some, and gave the original amount back.

To the investors that doubled their investments the wealthy manager had praise:
“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with little; I will put you in charge of much. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

To the hole-digger the wealthy man had little good to say. And that’s an understatement.

This, Not This
To better understand this parable it’s worth discussing some common misperceptions of it.

First, the story isn’t about money. At least not directly. Each parable person is given wild sums of wealth to use. Remember the smallest amount, in today’s dollars, is a cool 600k. The narrative turns on how people respond to such a great gift.

Second, while this text contains the language of slaves and masters, it doesn’t condone slavery. This is a topic some circles of Christianity have struggled with, mightily, for millennia. Instead, Jesus uses language to describe a social hierarchy, one common at the time this was written the original audience can relate to.

Third, the wealthy man, the master in this parable, isn’t God. It couldn’t be. The hole-digger in today’s text describes the master as harsh; the master doesn’t disagree. In fact, the master responds that “for all those have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing it will be taken away.”

This harsh language, ultimately, is impossible to reconcile with our understandings of the first being last, and vice-versa, and the beatitudes that bless those without. Instead, the master in this parable is as Jesus describes, a wealthy landowner. A landowner acting in ways wealthy human landowners often do. Acting in ways the original audience can relate to.

Extract
This parsing leaves us with a story about:

• The extravagant gifts we’re given, and what we do with them.
• A doing based not in enslaved obligation, but in faithful response.
• The definitive landowner, and creator, of all that is. A creator who provides and cares for us, in ways so complete, it’s difficult to comprehend from our limited, human lens.

How extravagant are God’s gifts to us? Remember how the master spoke to the two entrusted with over a million bucks each, “You have been faithful with little.”

Over a million is a little? God’s gifts are so much more than we can possibly imagine.

Respond
With heavenly gifts given, in quantities almost infinite, how then shall we respond?

We can choose to invest the gifts God’s given to us, being extravagant in our use of them. We can choose to selflessly share these gifts, infusing Christ’s good news the whole world round.

That’s the story of the two investors in today’s tale. Their actions represent what it is to be faithful. Faithfulness is a response. It is a response based in awe and gratitude, of all that has been given.

Or, we can get out the shovel and bury our talents, be they financial, or in service to the other. When we bury our talents we leave God’s investment in us unused. That’s the equivalent of putting your life savings under the mattress. Aka don’t expect much in return.

Ultimately it comes down to our trust, or lack of, in the God from whom all blessings flow.

Do we trust God enough to take the gifts we’ve been given out of the holes we dig for ourselves?

Do we trust God enough to take our spiritual life savings out from under our mattress?

Our US currency says prominently, in all capital letters, IN GOD WE TRUST.

Do we?

Getting more personal, do you trust God enough to use your gifts, faithfully, to more fully live into God’s call for your life?

The two investors used what they were entrusted with to better an earthly kingdom. How much more valued are our gifts, handed down from above, when used in faithful response to the divine?

Close
Investing in God’s kingdom, over the course of a lifetime, has historically been a divinely fruitful way to spend your days, while here, on earth. With the Holy Spirit at your side, you can expect, with all certainty, never to be alone.

Scripture generally gives three rules of thumb as you faithfully live into God’s call on your life:

• During good times celebrate, of course, but also be alert too. Mountaintop moments, in this realm, can come and go.
• During bad times celebrate as well. Because the future, invariably, will look better than it does right now. This is the promise, given unto us.
• Most importantly – Don’t bury the gifts God’s given you. Don’t hide them under the mattress. For when we live, in faithful response, to all we have been given, our Creator chimes in.

Well done, good and faithful one!
Come, share in your Creator’s joy.
Amen.