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Grace Like Rain
Psalm 68: 4 – 10
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,
the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.
Matthew 5: 43-45
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
I remember, as a kid in the Midwest in the middle of summer, some nights the air was so thick you could chew it with that oppressive hot air, the bugs and the heat and humidity. And then you would hear that low rumble on the horizon and you knew what was coming. We had a screened-in porch you could sit in and see a good ways off and my favorite memories are sitting there when it started to rain, where you could see the clouds and the rain peeling in with a jolt along the way and the rolls of thunder. And as the rain fell there was this relief; the air had changed around it as the rain let loose what had clung so close and the whole world was changed. I remember watching the storms come in with a sense of awe, wonder, gratitude and relief.
I contrast this to trying to get a kid in the car while carrying too many things as the bitterly cold rain pelts down, your hood flopping in the door and your foolishly inappropriate footwear getting soaked in puddles. For some reason, in this kind of rain, awe and gratitude are not my first inclination.
And yet, what is it still that waters that fall from heaven, more than I need, and here I am overburdened by my blessings: too many things to carry and a blessed child of God who is pretty much my favorite person, even when she doesn’t really care for her car seat. Here I am, calling the things that are blessings and not really recognizing them for the graces that they are. We are here in the month of November which, as our local meteorologist celebrity, Cliff Moss, explains, “Although the period from November to February is generally quite wet the greatest rainfall occurs in the last weeks of November, just in time for Thanksgiving.” Also, we are quickly discovering that even this has some variation in snowfall.
We are spending some time talking about grace, the gifts we receive from God, and how to transform the spirit to receive with gratitude. I know you are thinking that gratitude is not the most hard-hitting theological treatise, but to be honest, gratitude has deeper roots in who you believe God is and how you think God works in the world. We are grateful to God because of what God has done but if you listen to theological conversation in this country it could leave you very confused about the kinds of actions God takes on a regular basis, where we hear people thanking God for parking spots, we hear people thank God for gifts after times of great difficulties, people thank God for the food we eat, people thank God for our nations and people thank God for a sport team’s victory. And of course, we are talking about God, the huge mystery of the universe, and so if we don’t have
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By First Congregational Church, BellevuePsalm 68: 4 – 10
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,
the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.
Matthew 5: 43-45
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
I remember, as a kid in the Midwest in the middle of summer, some nights the air was so thick you could chew it with that oppressive hot air, the bugs and the heat and humidity. And then you would hear that low rumble on the horizon and you knew what was coming. We had a screened-in porch you could sit in and see a good ways off and my favorite memories are sitting there when it started to rain, where you could see the clouds and the rain peeling in with a jolt along the way and the rolls of thunder. And as the rain fell there was this relief; the air had changed around it as the rain let loose what had clung so close and the whole world was changed. I remember watching the storms come in with a sense of awe, wonder, gratitude and relief.
I contrast this to trying to get a kid in the car while carrying too many things as the bitterly cold rain pelts down, your hood flopping in the door and your foolishly inappropriate footwear getting soaked in puddles. For some reason, in this kind of rain, awe and gratitude are not my first inclination.
And yet, what is it still that waters that fall from heaven, more than I need, and here I am overburdened by my blessings: too many things to carry and a blessed child of God who is pretty much my favorite person, even when she doesn’t really care for her car seat. Here I am, calling the things that are blessings and not really recognizing them for the graces that they are. We are here in the month of November which, as our local meteorologist celebrity, Cliff Moss, explains, “Although the period from November to February is generally quite wet the greatest rainfall occurs in the last weeks of November, just in time for Thanksgiving.” Also, we are quickly discovering that even this has some variation in snowfall.
We are spending some time talking about grace, the gifts we receive from God, and how to transform the spirit to receive with gratitude. I know you are thinking that gratitude is not the most hard-hitting theological treatise, but to be honest, gratitude has deeper roots in who you believe God is and how you think God works in the world. We are grateful to God because of what God has done but if you listen to theological conversation in this country it could leave you very confused about the kinds of actions God takes on a regular basis, where we hear people thanking God for parking spots, we hear people thank God for gifts after times of great difficulties, people thank God for the food we eat, people thank God for our nations and people thank God for a sport team’s victory. And of course, we are talking about God, the huge mystery of the universe, and so if we don’t have