Carl DeLine

A prayer: Our Lord we sit on the precipice of seeing beyond a vision. Help us to close our eyes to our own understandings, to our own abilities to how we comprehend. Lord place us in the heavens that we might know your strength, the strength of the wind that picks us up moves us where it would, allow us to know the gentleness of the rain that cleanses us from the material dust. Place us in your presence that our sense of awe will be the only word, the only sound we dare express. Lead us in worship, bow our hearts that we may be touched by your love. Amen.

Scripture: Acts 2:42-47 • Psalm 23 • 1 Peter 2:19-25 • John 10:1-10

(Your prayer: Share what the scripture prompts you to pray.)

A Time for Music prompted by you reading the Scripture.

“I Lift My Eyes to the Lord”

“The Lord Is My Shepherd”

Meditation: As I was reading the Scripture I had a sense of belonging. I am at home. Then a bee nose-dived me. Here in Texas the weather is warm. I spent yesterday building a deck on the side of the house. There is a tree about five feet from me, in it is a bee’s nest. I looked at them and said, “there is room enough for the two of us.” You do not have enough power to destroy a simple memory that changed my life. As a young boy my mother went into the hospital. Me, my brother and sisters were put in foster care. I went to a home where the woman was brutish. She scared me. One day I had been out running and playing with other children. It was a simple game of hide and seek. I ran behind a bush, dove in so as not to be seen. A bee saw me, did not like that I was there. Got me, dead center, in the middle of the chest. I swelled up in pain. I started to cry. I held my tears back as much as possible. But there was the sniffling, it would not stop. Then I heard the lady yelling my name out. I was afraid, she had a way of yelling when she tried to tell me what I had done wrong. I knew I was in trouble. I closed my eyes and tried to stay as quiet as possible. Then a child’s voice spoke out. She had her hand stretched toward me. Ice cream had melted down the side of the cone, around her hand. She looked at me, said it looks like that hurts really bad. “Here, maybe this will help” as she handed me her ice cream cone. Some how I felt like I belonged. Reading the scripture we are told how the people lived and shared in common. I think if that little girl had been there they would have all gotten ice cream.

In the Sarcoidosis Group we have been talking about health care. Somehow as I listen to the rhetoric I do not hear the thread of grace. I hear story after story how greed and power justify behavior or lack of behavior. There are social implications to any religious teaching or belief. The lack of behavioral change is indicative of the inability to have cracked the surface of the self, of the ego that says what is mine is mine and what is yours will become mine. These are teachings of the world the apostles and followers of Jesus faced. It is not much different than the world we face today.

Then we are reminded of the Shepherd’s Psalm. There is a peace and gracefulness pouring forth from the text. The Psalm, which has found its way into the chorus books of history leaves us again with a sense of belonging. The decisions we make enable us to stay where we belong or to venture into the valleys of life. At no time are we left to believe we will be alone.

The secret, if there is to be one, is to discover the way of Jesus and then to stay there. Jesus leads us away from the thieves and bandits of life to a place of belonging. We are reminded there will be a banquet, there will be a place for all of us. I hope when I get there I will see that young girl and I will share my ice cream with her.

Amen.

Prayer: We belong. Thank you. Please share your stories of belonging.

“Going Home.”