We conclude our worship series, Reaching in Love, this Sunday. Worship will be rooted in Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Frederick Buechner writes,
All his life long, wherever Jesus looked, he saw the world not in terms simply of its brokenness – a patchwork of light and dark calling forth in us now our light, now our dark – but in terms of the ultimate mystery of God’s presence buried in it like a treasure buried in a field. It is not just that the Kingdom is like a pearl of great price, like a mustard seed, like leaven. It is indeed like them in ways that Jesus suggests in his parables, but it is also within them as it is also within us. Pearls, seeds, fields, leaven, the human heart, all of them carry within them something of the holiness of their origin. It is the wholest and realest part of their reality and of ours. Sinners are made in the image of God no less than saints… (from Longing for Home, 111)
Whether it is Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth….Jesus calls us to share what we have seen and what we know about the love of God. (This is called Witness!)
Often we find ourselves reaching in love with unclear or even mixed motivations. Despite this, God works in us and through us. In this process of reaching in love, God’s power is felt deeply within our hearts. We can’t often put words to this feeling, this mystery.
Think of a time when you’ve felt your heart “strangely warmed” while reaching in love to others. What was that experience like? What happened around you? What happened within you?
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