Do and Be

Sermon snippets:
James 1:22-25
"...Being hopeful doesn't mean everything will always work out the way we want. Being doers of the word doesn’t mean we always act perfectly. But hope is bigger than any single tragedy. Our faithful activity in this world is bigger than any specific success.

 Jesus doesn’t just teach us this through the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. He says to look at this children, to be and do as children to live in the kindom of heaven. The front of our bulletins today shows an earnest, hopeful, active kid proclaiming peace and picking berries. Kids are brilliant because, like my dog Sula or lilies or birds, they haven’t learned to be cynical and worry and argue and find excuses for inactivity. Kids know the perfect law of liberty because they haven’t acquired baggage that takes away their freedom.

The philosopher Nietzsche says that we should act with the seriousness of a child at play. Picture that...

I saw our children seriously play at the park yesterday during our picnic with Bethel AME. Bodies, mind and spirits all in sync. How often do you live that way?

As you kids played yesterday you threw your whole selves into it, and when you got hurt or disappointed you felt it fully, then went back to play with a little more savvy. We adults get hurt or disappointed and sometimes we just get stuck, we shut down, we don't get back to work or play....



Where are you stuck? If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?...."

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