Beggars to god...

This morning I said to my small congregation: "Last night before I went to

bed I had a thought - what would I want to say to you if I knew I only had one more hour to speak and share with you - what would I want to say?" Then I looked at my sermon notes and tossed them up in the air: "Well, I KNOW it wouldn't be this..." What followed came out something like:

+ With only one hour left to share I would want to tell you to LOVE those who are closest and most dear to you.  Love them and embrace them, dance with them and forgive them and build a feast together for life is so short.

+ Don't waste ANY time on those who are resistant to your love - or whose sole purpose seems only to be be a soul vampire - leave them to God. Trust that God has embraced them and will bring them what they most need. No, don't you waste any more time on them; just give your heart to those who most need your love. Who most ache for your love.

+ For if the Lord IS our shepherd, then we shall not want. God has provided for us what we need - so don't waste the love and time that has been given to us - it is all we truly possess. That's what I would want to say to you if I knew I had just one more hour to share: love one another as I have loved you as Jesus told us.

+ Remember, that when Jesus said those words he was on his knees with a towel around his neck washing the feet of those he loved the most. He knew that in a short time he would die - die a horrible and lonely death - but look what he did. He gathered those he loved the most close to him, he loved and served them, then he feasted and prayed with them - even forgave them for things that they hadn't yet done - and then he blessed them.  That's how we must live with one another, too.  Love one another as I have loved you...

I probably said one or two other things, too.  I mentioned that recently I had read some words from one of our own shepherds, John, who said that most of the time a shepherd gives a little care to his lambs, maybe frightens off a coyote or two as well but mostly shovels a whole lot of shit because that is what is needed.  But that doesn't matter because it is all grounded in love. But that was mostly it - and then I sat down. 

I was thinking all the time of Bob Franke's wonderful song "Beggars to God"- Make love to each other, be free with each other, be prisoners of love til you lie in the sod; be friends to each other, forgive one another, see God in each other: be beggars to God - and after worship I can't tell you how many people were weeping.  A number made a point to tell me that this was JUST what their soul's needed to hear today.  

I didn't really know if it was communicating, but I knew I just needed to trust the Spirit completely today.  For as is so often the case, when I catch a little whisper, it is always best to trust that more will be revealed.