This is week two of our “Bless to Me” series. If you like to listen to the sermon I’ve started the video at the scripture reading for you (of course you can always rewind and watch the whole service if you’d like). Or if you’d rather read it, I’ve shared the transcript below.
Bless to Me
Week Two
“Holy Moments: Celebrating the Gifts of Life”
Last week we introduced this series on Celtic Blessings. I shared about how we need to celebrate God’s presence in each moment throughout the day. I shared my disdain for housework but how I’ve learned to find God even in my housework and to look at it as a blessing.
Today we are going to focus on Holy Moments and celebrating the Gifts of Life. Often we think of Holy Moments as big events, communion, baptism, worship services but we can find holy moments every day in life, even in the small things.
Would you please pray with me? May the words of mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts and minds be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
As I thought about this sermon all week, I kept coming back to the phrase, eventually it won’t be this way. Let me know explain.
When the kids were little and constantly sitting on me, or wanting to hold to my hand, to telling every few seconds they loved me – even when I was super busy and didn’t really have time for all of this, I tried to make myself take time this when I could reminding myself that eventually they wouldn’t want to do those things anymore and I needed to appreciate it and relish in these precious moments, maybe even holy moments because they would grow out of it and I would miss it!
Being a military spouse, I learned really quickly to relish in the toothpaste in the sink or the gaging that goes on when (ahem) someone brushes their teeth because I would eventually go long periods time where I’d wish for all those things again during deployments.
This morning as I was writing in my gratitude journal, our little puppy, Sidney, was all snuggled in my lap, kind of in my way but I relished it and thanked him for this special time, because in a few hours, I’ll be begging him to calm down and just snuggle instead of running crazy, barking incessantly at absolutely nothing.
For me, these are holy moments, gifts of life that need to be celebrated. This week I want to introduce the idea of “Bless to Me” prayers as a way of really noticing the everyday blessing in our lives. It’s a super easy concept. As you take that first sip of your morning coffee pray, “Bless to me this cup of coffee that starts my day with warmth and flavor.” Or if you are like me in the mornings it might be more like, “Bless to me these covers that keep me toasty warm!” As I snuggle back in for a few more minutes.
Or maybe it’s “Bless to me this vacuum that cleans what I can’t on my own.” Or Bless to me these dishes as we clean up after a meal. You get the idea. It’s just taking a moment to remember the little blessings, to slow down enough to focus on the beautiful gifts of life, of our ordinary lives.
I encourage to you take some time for this each day and even write them down if you’d like! Share with us if you’d as well, in fellowship time or send them to me and I’ll share them in our worship. Once you get started, it’s kind of fun!
I think during this time right now, this time of pandemic, of social distancing, of confusion, in this time that seems overrun with anger, fear and hate, this time of divisiveness, absolutes, this time when we are all struggling to find truth, to find good, to find joy – noticing these little blessings in the simplicities of life is more important than ever.
Our book for this series, Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me by Beth A. Richardson, devotes Chapter Two to these types of prayers. Bless to me this walking of the dog, Bless to me this cup of coffee, a bird’s nest, this sabbath day, sowing seed and washing the dishes. All these are just every day, ordinary things and rhythms of life.
Our reading from the Psalms this morning reminds every creature great and small, in all things, to praise our maker!
Our gospel reading this morning is from the book of Luke 12:27.
“Notice how the lilies grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these.”
Jesus reminds us here, not to let ourselves get so caught up in our work, that we can’t see the blessings right in front of us. The simple every day things we take for granted. The extraordinary in the ordinary. The beautiful flower in the weed, the love in the attention seeking, the plenty in the cleaning.
Blessings are all around us. Take time out each day this week to really appreciate them and to thank our Creator for the gift of them. Amen.
Simply Sherri 