I love the pastor of the church I attend. He gets to me in ways that no one else can. He breaks down the bible and touches my soul every week. It’s hard to describe this older, seemingly grumpy man – cause he is those things but he OWNS it. He admits he’s flawed and that he’s working on many of the same issues we are all working on. He doesn’t preach from a place of perfection, he teaches from a place of humanity. I have a heck of a lot of respect for him and it’s what brought me back to the church and keeps me going back every week.
He wasn’t the preacher when we went to church last Saturday night because he was traveling. But he was home in time to preach on Sunday. I pulled up the audio of his sermon to listen one morning while I drove to work. I am so very glad I did.
Last Sunday’s sermon at church was on Psalm 86, verse 15:
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
There are many things the pastor said that blew me away about this passage but one part made me stop in my tracks. He told us that in the original version, it doesn’t really say this. What it says is: “God – merciful. God – gracious. God – slow to anger. God – abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
That each of those words are a definition of God.
My reaction upon hearing this was to pause the sermon and sit back in my seat. I was blown away. I may have literally said out loud: “What the what the what??”
I was raised in religion, not the bible. Religion told me that God was an old man sitting in a golden throne passing judgment on everyone. I mean, have you READ the Old Testament? There wasn’t a lot of focus on the New Testament in my church. We heard about Job and the flood and the Tower of Babel and Moses…..everything pointed out to me that God was one mean ass dude who punished everyone when they were bad.
This sermon blew the door off of everything I’d been raised to believe as truth.
I keep thinking about it and going back to Psalm 86. God IS Grace. God IS merciful. God IS….
God is love. That’s what it all boils down to, right? And my job – all of our jobs – is to do our best every day to reflect that love back on the world. To love everyone. Even those whom we deem to be the most un-loveable. Which is incredibly difficult to even imagine. Yet God’s Grace shows us that it is possible.
Now my prayer/chat with God every morning involves me talking about those I’m having a hard time loving. Of course I talk about those who are close to my heart too but I spend a lot of time asking God to help me find a way to love those who need it the most. After all, God has loved me when I’ve been rather un-loveable. If He can do that for me, the least I can do is try to do the same.
Lord, help me connect to Your love every moment today. That when I’m tested and pushed and angry beyond words, I feel Your presence and Your love surround me. Thank you, God, for all You’ve done to show me Your love and grace. Amen.