EVERYTHING YOU NEED

 

 

 

 

Invocation:

 

God of love and grace, you provide all we need and invite us to receive all you give. As we share this time of worship together, help us to name our true needs, and then reveal to us how we might fully receive You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

 

Children’s Time: Tiny boxes filled with joy.

 

Sermon:

 

Choices to pick from – Mother’s Day, The 400th celebration / and me a direct descendant of the Mayflower, and the Lectionary. As it turned out two of the three blends wonderfully together. Hear now the scripture for this morning.

 

 Scripture: John 14: 23-29

 

In verse 22

Here we find Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asking Jesus – “Lord how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?

 

In Verse 23

Jesus answers – “Whoever loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and my Father will come to him and live with him.”

 

Jesus calls us to demonstrate our love by keeping his word.

 

The Rev. Dr. Isaiah Jones, Jr. says it this way:

 

As Christian people, who we are should be shaped by our efforts to keep the word of Jesus and by our willingness to accept the Holy Spirit’s role in teaching us…. The Holy Spirit will be a teacher.

 

God’s Spirit can and will teach us in all areas of our lives. We can be who we are - -who God wants us to be – as we live by the word of Jesus, as we depend upon the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love is the first item on Jesus’ mind. Jesus has just given the disciples in Chapter 13 a new commandment, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

 

Pastor Krister Ulmanis tells of an event that occurred some 200 years ago in Scotland to a Rev. Samuel Rutherford.

 

Rutherford was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. One evening a stranger came to the parsonage door and asked if he could stay the night. The stranger was welcomed into the house. It was the custom for the minister and his family to have devotions at the end of the day and the stranger was asked to join in the family’s service, which he did.

 

After the pastor read the scripture for the day, each person was asked questions about the Bible. When the time came for the stranger’s question, he asked an easy one, “How many commandments are there?..........”

 

The stranger quickly answered, “Eleven”

 

The minister was surprised at the man’s ignorance and immediately corrected him by saying, “There are only Ten Commandments”

 

The stranger then replied, “Have you never then read, “A New commandment I give you, that you love one another”?”

 

So, keeping the word of Jesus really at its basic understanding is to love one another.

 

 He and the Father will come and live with them.

 

In Romans 14:8 we hear Paul say – “whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” In 1st and 2nd Corinthians Paul speaks of Christians as God’s temple which mirrors Jesus’ promise that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

 

 

Home is where the heart is. Home is that place where we live with loved ones, a place where we love and are loved in return. Home is where they know us best and love us anyway. Home is where we are with the Lord – and we are with the Lord now – and will be with the Lord forever.

 

Bishop Charlene Kammerer of the Virginia Conference in the May issue of the Advocate states:

 

“The simple reason I am a United Methodist is that I was born into this faith, from the example and witness of my family, especially my grandmother…. I was given the assurance in my heart that Jesus loved me, …and would accompany me all of my life with his living, breathing spirit.”

 

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.”

 

James C. Somerville in his article “Who will take care of us?”-  lifts up a friends accounting of the image of Jesus as a mother standing with her hand on the doorknob, her coat over her arm, watching her children play on the living room floor. One of them looks up suddenly and, noticing that she is about to leave, asks:

 

Where are you going?

 

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself; so that where I am there you may be also.

 

Can we go with you?

 

Where I am going you cannot come.

 

How long will you be gone?

 

A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while and you will see me.

 

Who will take care of us?

 

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

 

TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS / IMPORTANT WOMEN IN OUR LIVES

 

A PARABLE FOR MOTHERS by Temple Bailey

 

 

The Greek word for Holy Spirit is Paraklatos and means Advocate, Comforter, Counselor or Helper and describes a Spirit who remains at our side forever. Our Paraclete gives us peace.

 

The Holy Spirit will make all things clear. The Holy Spirit stands beside us to guide us. If we follow, the Spirit leads to truth. If we obey, the Spirit leads to life. The blessings are not automatic. We must follow, we must obey.

 

Fred Craddock – Author and former dean of a school of theology in Georgia said “The Holy Spirit will do for the Church what Jesus did for the disciples.”

 

If you can kind of grasp the vision of Jesus as a mother, then it may not be so hard to imagine the Spirit in this other role either, as one who cares for the church in the interim between Jesus’ departure and return, as one who comforts, teaches, and reminds the people of God.

 

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid.”

 

We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.

 

We can have peace – for in faith we know there is one who is returning for us. And that is Everything you need.

 

Because of the resurrection we know that we are not forgotten. We know that there is one who has gone to prepare a place for us, and that’s Everything you need.

 

An African-American poet once put it this way:

 

“There’s a king and captain high, And He’s coming by and by,

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when he comes.

You can hear His legions charging in the regions of the sky,

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when comes.

 

There’s a Man they thrust aside, Who was tortured till He died,

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when He comes.

He was hated and rejected, He was scorned and crucified,

When He comes! When He comes!

 

He’ll be crowned by saints and angels when he comes.

They’ll be shouting out Hosanna! To the Man that men denied,

And I’ll kneel among my cotton when He comes.

 

The Rev. Richard J. Fairchild says:

 

The future holds much promise - -but the greatest promise is this:

Where He is – there we will be as well.

Till that day – he dwells within us – among us –

His word works upon our hearts

His spirit moves in our midst.

 

That’s Every thing you need.

 

Love Him and keep his word –

He will make you different

And He will make a difference to you.

 

That’s Every thing you need.