Sermon Illustrations

SABBATH TIME

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(Our Lenten Journey)
"SABBATH TIME"
By George Kroupa III

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The author of Ecclesiastes once wrote that God put eternity into the hearts of his people. But the way most of us live, you'd think God had put an alarm clock there instead. Somehow, we have lost the sense of God's timelessness.

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As a parish pastor, the most repeated line I heard outside the Apostles' Creed was, "I wish I had more time to (fill in the blank)." As I look across the congregation on Sunday mornings, people often seem worn out. A recent New York Times article described "a swelling complaint of people all over the United States, in large cities or small, with highly demanding jobs or no job at all. Almost nobody, it seems, has enough time."

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Despite the groaning over the squeezing out of our free time, the same article pointed out a major University of Maryland study paper showing an increase in Americans' leisure time between 1965 and 1985. Meanwhile, an A.C. Nielsen report informs us that daily television watching has increased from six hours and 36 minutes per household in 1980 to seven hours and five
minutes in 1987.

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On the other hand, a Louis Harris poll points out that our unstructured time actually has shrunk 32 percent since 1973. 

 

While these contradictions in measuring leisure time may be confusing, the question remains, "What will I do with my free hours?"

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In his book Sabbath Time, Tilden Edwards points out that we tend "to define ourselves in terms of what we produce ... and what we consume as part of our identity."

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He observes that even our leisure time gets just as loaded as our work-day by "our consumption of education, material goods, public events [and] passive hobbies. ... When it becomes too much, we are tempted to collapse into some form of oblivion — sleep, drink, drugs, any kind of television or whatever might numb our self-production for a while."

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In our Lenten journey, we pause at Mount Sinai, where God holds out the possibility of knowing his loving presence in the experience of Sabbath. In delivering the commands of Israel in remarkably compressed form, God spends no fewer than four verses describing the importance of Sabbath to his people.

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It is not a time for our own production or consumption, for escaping or numbing the grind of our lives, but a time to find new energy by celebrating the God of love in our midst. In the decalogue, God links Sabbath with his creation of life. He lays it out to the people of Israel as part of the rhythm of human life in the covenant. In the Sabbath, God reminds us that our identity comes from him instead of from the things we produce or consume.

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In the Gospel, Jesus reveals that the "Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath." It isn't something we just keep, but a time we enjoy. It's a freebie, a means of grace, planted in the heart.

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During Lent, I realize how much I avoid Sabbath time. Either I over-structure it or ignore it altogether. I wonder if many of us do so because we are naked in our Sabbath rest with God? Is it because we are vulnerable before God? Is it because when we encounter the risen Christ we do not want to acknowledge the weeds in our spirit? Maybe we avoid the hopes and possibilities of God in Sabbath because it is easier to build ourselves up by consuming at the mall and producing at work.

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As a productive American Presbyterian with my programs, plans and statistics, I sometimes feel guilty and itchy sitting as a fallow field before God, open to being seeded and provided with the sufficient and free nourishment of Christ. Yet God offers Sabbath time as a gift.

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His reign is part of and beyond the Program Calendar.

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March 14, 1988 THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK pg 11

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​SEASONED SALT

Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element.
Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride — common table salt — the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its
flavor.

Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with
various doctrines. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from the gospel.

When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called 'the salt of the
earth,' and we’re able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.

-David H. Johnson

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SECRETS

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Telling Our Secrets

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It is important to tell our secrets too because it makes it easier that way to see where we have been in our lives and where we are going. It also makes it easier for other people to tell us a secret or two of their own, and exchanges like that have a lot to do with what being family is all about and what being human is all about.

 

Finally, I suspect that it is by entering that deep place inside us where our secrets are kept that we come perhaps closer than we do anywhere else to the One who, whether we realize it or not, is of all our secrets the most telling the most precious we have to tell.

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Excerpt from Frederick Buechner's Telling Secrets: A Memoir in The Presbyterian Outlook, September 9, 1991, Volume 173

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SEE (Through Jesus' Eyes)

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'TELL JOHN WHAT YOU SEE'

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Imagine a night at an observatory with Stephen Hawking, the physicist and mathematician who theorizes about time and the creation and the end of the universe. He would order the attendant to aim the telescope, and as you look, he'd say, "Now, do you see that bright star in the upper left? That's a nova."

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He'd aim the telescope to places out there where he believes there may be black holes, as though you can see a black hole with your eyes. And, he'd laugh and say, "You're not seeing anything you haven't seen before."

He'd be right, technically. I've looked at the sky before, but haven't seen in just the same way I can imagine seeing with him at my side. It's like a walk in the woods with someone from the Audubon Society. You hear sounds you've always heard. But, with the help of a birder you know what you're hearing. You see nests and birds you've seen before. Or you see new ones that had been there right along but unnoticed because you didn't know what to look for.

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Jesus tells John's disciples, "Tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them" (Matthew 11:4, 5).

Surely they answered him, or wanted to answer him, "We don't see all that!"

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So Jesus takes them on a Stephen Hawking look at the stars, an Audubon walk through their world. Jesus takes them to the symphony of life and says, "Now you hear the oboe? And that sound is a viola, and soon you'll hear the French horn." Jesus tells them what they hear and see, because they walk through this life not much hearing or seeing the activity all around them.

 

"Tell John what you hear and see." We are all of us John, and also John's disciples. We have no perception of the blind receiving sight or the lame walking, of lepers washed clean or the deaf hearing the first birdsong of dawn. We haven't seen the dead raised or the poor hearing good news for once. But it's all there. Look deep into the night sky and listen to what Jesus says is happening. Listen to the symphony and hear Jesus' orchestration. Look these days of Advent for what Jesus says you hear and see. Jesus doesn't lie. 

 

William R. Leety is pastor, Covenant Church, Scranton, Pa. This series is based on the lectionary texts - Advent III
Page 8 in THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK  December 4-11,1989

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SELLOUT - BETHLEHEM

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It used to be that in any NFL city where the game didn't sellout, the game was blacked out. You could only see your home team play away games if the stands weren't full for  home games. Every team has gone through such a downturn in attendance.

 

Sellout. All the seats full. Nice for the owner. Nice for the team.

Sellout. Like the inn at Bethlehem. Every room full. Had to stick the pregnant lady and her husband out in the barn in the back.

 

Sellout. Like our lives often are. Full of so many things that there's no room for our children or our husband or  our wife, and God gets stuck in the storage shed out back where we keep the pruning saw and the fertilizer.

Sellout. Everything full.

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Pastor Jack Kurtz, 12/7/1996, Bush Hill Presbyterian Church, Alexandria, VA, in the sermon "SELLOUT"

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SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

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To Learn about church and state,
just send in your $50
by Art Buchwald

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The issue of the separation of church and state has reared its ugly head in the 19845 presidential campaign. The may not be good for the state, but it's not bad for television preachers.

 

My favorite, the Right Rev. Rolls Royce, devoted his entire hour to this subject the other morning. He said: 

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"I'm going to speak to you today about God, sin and the American election. The secular humanists would have you believe that religion must not play a part in government - that we should not mix religion when it comes to re-electing the greatest President on this good green globe.

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"Well, my friends, the Bible has something to say about this.  What does the Bible say about state andreligion? You can find out by sending $50 for this velvet-bound illus-trated edition, which we have print-ed at cost, to guide you in makingwhat could be the greatest decisionof your life. For those of you whocan’t afford this beautiful gold-trimmed book, we are offering a pa-perback edition for $15, so no onecan say that he or she wasn't in-formed on the issues.

 

"Do religion and government mix? Well, I’m going to tell you a story. A man came to me last month and said a he didn’t think he was better off today than he was four years ago. He had lost his job, his benefits were running out and he could hardly feed his family on the food stamps that he was receiving. He told me that because of his precarious situation he was confused and didn’t know whom to vote for in November. 

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“I told him that when he goes into the voting booth he must not think of his own petty problems. He must decide which party's  platform supports God and which party's platform supports Satan. I gave him copies of both parties' platforms. Do you know what this man did after reading them? He gave me his last $5 for a Reagan bumper sticker.

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“The aggressive humanists would have us believe that the fathers of the Constitution deliberately set out to keep state and religion separate. Well, I'm holding a copy of the Constitution in my mhand, the beautiful political document ever devised by man. This document can be yours free, if you send $10 for postage costs and handling. It is printed on parchment with the First Amendment in bold red type. Whenever a humanist cites the Supreme Court on keeping religion out of the government you can show him this document to proves the Supreme Court justices are wrong.

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"My friends, too many of us take it for granted how blessed we are to live in a country under God. We're afraid to show our true feelings. But we have to shout to the world that we're the greatest so it can be heard all the way to the Kremlin. You may be asking how you can do this. You can doi it by displaying this American flag. For just $100 you can hang one of these flags in your window. I have personally blessed each of them, so you're not just buying an American flag, but one that was touched by God's hand.​

 

"I want to conclude this broadcast by telling you about the wonderful prayer breakfast I attended in Dallas where I heard the inspirational words of our great President. After the breakfast I went up to our comander-in-chief on earth to bless him. I would like to share that meaningful moment with you. My wife Lucibelle took an Instamatic photograph of the President shaking my hand. If you will send Just $20 we will make you a framed copy of that picture which you can hang in your living room to show your friends. It is something you will cherish for the rest of your life. This is a collector's item and the only picture in existence of Ronald Reagan and myself. The offer is limited to the first 50,000 people who send in their check. After that we will burn the negative and no one will be able to reproduce this miracle photograph again."
 

Tuesday. Sept. I1, 1984  By ART BUCH WALD

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SHARING

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Once I was in Vienna after a two-week illness in a little Austrian village. I had spent most of my travel money on medicine and doctors and  used my last bit to take a train to Vienna. I had no clue as to where I could find my friends who had been waiting for me earlier. I was lost and hungry and depressed. As I was standing in one of the streetcar stations in central Vienna, tired, discouraged, and trying to figure out what to do, a little, old wrinkled woman (whose job it was to sweep out the station) came over to me and asked if I was hungry. Even before I could answer, she took her lunch from a brown bag and offered me half! I was moved. She not only helped my aching hunger, but lifted my spirit in an unforgettable way.

 

I have never forgotten her—the warmth of her face, the graciousness of her gift, the youthful sparkle in her eyes* We talked for more than an hour about her life. She was raised in the country, knowing nothing but hard work on a farm. She had lost her husband and two sons in the Resistance to the Nazis. Only her daughter survived. But she was thankful, she said, for many things. She was at peace with her story. 

Finally, I asked her why she offered me her lunch. She said simply, “Jesu ist mein Herrn. Gott ist gut.” (Jesus is my. Lord. God is good.) She understood and lived in the story of Jesus; in a way that most sophisticated scholars could never do. Her faith touched mine. Who was it, after all, that I met that day in Vienna?

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(Fairchild, Finding Hope Again [Harper & Row, 1980], p. 136).

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SITUATION - BAD NEWS (joke)

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You may have heard about the doctor that called his patient and said, "I have bad news for you, and some really bad news."

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"That's horrible," the man replied, "Tell me the bad news first." 

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"Well," replied the doctor, "The bad news is that you have just twenty-four hours to live."

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"Oh my!" said the man, "And if that's the bad news, what could be really bad news?"

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"The really bad news," the doctor replied, "is that I meant to call you yesterday."

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Used in the sermon "Acceptance of Situations," by Pastor John A. Bash at the Chesapeake Presbyterian Church
in Sunderland, MD, in 1994

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SLEEP (joke)

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A minister was aksed how many his church would sleep in case of a hurricane.

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'On a Sunday morning,' he replied, "we sleep about 200."

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-First Presbyterian Church, Lakeland, FL

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STAR OF WONDER

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Star of Wonder

The light that appeared on the night of  Christ’s birth — what was it? (A Guideposts editor surveys some
fascinating theories.)

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“O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright... ”
That refrain haunted me as I gazed up into the glittering night while walking home from church with my parents and brothers on a long-ago Christmas Eve. What was it really, that mysterious star of God? I wondered. 

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So have many others wondered. For of all the biblical records of Christ’s birth, it is the star of Bethlehem that has especially piqued our interest, and the imaginations of poets, painters and composers.

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Just what was this stellar body that guided “We Three Kings”? Through the years that question has continued to intrigue me. It has sent me to a variety of sources, including the Christmas star show at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, where I watched the projector turn the great dark dome into the sky over Bethlehem as it was seen 2,000 years ago. As I studied books and theories, I learned that some theologians believe the star was a supernatural event, some consider the story purely symbolic, and others have searched for a natural event in the sky such as a supernova (exploding star) or flaming comet. A number of
scholars have suggested it was a conjunction, or lining up of several planets. The consensus, however, is that we
probably may never know.

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In recent years, several scholarly studies of the star have been made, and I’ve read them avidly. One, by Dr. Ernest L. especially fascinated me. The Birth of Christ Recalculated" is based on modem discoveries in history, archaeology and
astronomy. Of all the theories currently clustering around the Christmas star, I believe Martin’s may be the most plausible.

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The story of the star starts with the only people known to have beheld it: Matthew’s “wise men from the east” (Matthew, 2:1). In the Gospel’s original Greek, the word for wise men was magoi, or “magi.” These, I learned, were probably a group of  Zoroastrian priests from Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) in the ancient Parthian Empire, hundreds of miles east of Jerusalem. Skilled astronomers, the magoi carefully studied the heavens from atop great terraced temples, or ziggurats.

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God warns us against using astrology, and the Jews of that day received His warning in the Old Testament However, the Parthian wise men often interpreted celestial events as omens. As religious scholars they would have known the Jewish prophecies of a coming “messiah king.” A major Hebrew religious school already existed in their area. In fact, their own religion predicted a “great deliverer,” not necessarily of their own faith. We also know that the magoi were excellent scientists. I was impressed by their skill when 1 learned that a clay tablet from 7 B.c. found in Mesopotamia forecast accurately the movements of the planets for the following year. To the magoi, incidentally, “star” could mean almost any light in die sky, whether star,
planet, comet or nova.

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Today’s astronomers, by using current data and computers, can depict accurately the position of a star or a planet centuries ago! Thus, with the help of a planetarium projector, one can actually see what the sky looked like on any night of the year—any year!

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Modem astronomers are certain that something remarkable took place in the Middle Eastern sky beginning in the summer of 3 B.C. It was a most dramatic display, and the magoi, those expert watchers of the sky, would certainly have seen it.

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What made my growing knowledge of “the star” all the more fascinating was learning that experts such as Dr. Martin believe that this unusual celestial event occurred right around the time of Jesus’ birth, now generally considered to have been sometime in 3 or 2 B.C. Just what was this momentous display that so captured the attention of the wise men? With mounting interest I read what they would have seen.

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At dawn on August 12, 3 B.C., the magoi stood atop their ziggurats, watching raptly as the two shining planets Jupiter and Venus rose in conjunction in the eastern sky. Conjunctions (which had a tremendous significance in their eyes) occur when celestial bodies line up so closely that, although they are actually millions of miles apart, they appear to us as a single, superbright light To the wise men, Jupiter signified kingship; Venus, birth and motherhood. In other words, the conjunction meant that somewhere a king was being born. But king of what people? The wise men had an answer: The conjunction occurred in the constellation of Leo—to the magoi the symbol of the Hebrew tribe of Judah. But there was even more to come, I discovered.

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Ten months later, in June of 2 B.C, it happened again. Once more Jupiter and Venus lined up, this time so close they blazed as a single, glorious light. But now they shone in the evening sky, in the west. To the astounded wise men, that was precisely the direction of Jerusalem, capital city of Hebrew longs.

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Nor was that all. Between these two dazzling planetary displays, some other unique heavenly events took place. In September of 3 B.C. the excited wise men saw Jupiter rise to meet Regulus, the bright star in the constellation Leo, and a symbol of rulership. To their wonder, this occurred twice more, in February and May of 2 B.C. To the magoi, these three conjunctions, preceded and followed by the Jupiter/Venus conjunctions, could mean only one thing: the birth of a very powerful Jewish king.

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And so they journeyed—over “field and fountain, moor and mountain'"—on a months-Iong westward pilgrimage, anxious to find the new king and pay him homage. On the map, I eagerly followed their caravan’s probable route north along the wide  Euphrates River, then across to Antioch, down the Mediterranean coast and up to Jerusalem in the mountainous highlands of Judaea.

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Finally they arrived at Herod’s palace, asking to see the king’s new son—“He that is bom King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2). But the surprised long had no son, and in a paranoid frenzy he called together his chief priests and scribes and “demanded of  them where Christ should be bom” (2:4). They replied, “In Bethlehem of Judaea” (2:5).

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So the wise men set out for the little town of Bethlehem, five miles south. As caravans would do, they probably started out at dawn—and were astonished to see the same blazing star that had first called them on their journey! For, as astronomical calculations show, in early September of 2 B.C. Jupiter and Venus again rose in conjunction, glowing brightly in the Bethlehem dawn. In my search, I read where some interpreters point to an appearance of Jupiter over Bethlehem on December 25, 2 B.C. But I personally feel drawn to the Jupiter and Venus conjunction in September of 2 B.C. because it was so strikingly similar to
the conjunction that had launched the magoi's quest. Furthermore, Matthew 2:10 tells us that on beholding their old friend, the wise men “rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” 1 could sense their excitement as they urged their camel caravan, clinking and clanking, onward to Bethlehem.

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The magoi would probably have had little trouble finding the Holy Family in Bethlehem, for the dramatic events of Jesus’ birth—angels appearing, astonished shepherds—would have been common local knowledge. And so the wise men from the east,  lured westward by the heavens they were so skilled at observing, finally and triumphantly came to stand before Jesus Christ.

Though these current astronomical explanations of the star of the Magi seem convincing, 1 realize that we’ll never know for  sure. Were the extraordinary conjunctions of 3 and 2 B.C. just a coincidence? Or was a divine plan working through them?

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This Christmas Eve as I look up through the cold clear night to God’s glorious firmament, I know it will probably always be a mystery, this “star of wonder.” Yet—although I, as a Christian, do not need material evidence to support my faith—I am sure of  one thing. Two thousand years ago, something wonderful in the heavens did indeed brighten the night sky over Bethlehem...

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   "O star of wonder, star of night,
    Star with royal beauty bright;
    Westward leading, still proceeding,
    Guide us to Thy perfect light.”

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by Richard H. Schneider, Guideposts Senior Staff Editor Guideposts, December 1988

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STEWARDHIP

NEWSLETTER Article, Calvary Lutheran Church, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19382
The Rev Roy Almquist, Pastor, OCTOBER 1985

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SMALL POTATOES AND A PEOPLE CALLED TO CARE

 

There is a charming Chinese legend about potato farmers. Part of the potato crop was always set aside by the farmers to be used as "seed." At one time the biggest potatoes were saved, but slowly the trend changed. Younger farmers decided to sell and eat the larger ones, holding back the smaller potatoes for seed. Eventually the inevitable occurred - the Chinese farmers began to produce smaller and smaller potatoes.

"As ye sow, so shall ye reap," Jesus said in good King James’ English! We are always in danger of replicating this tragedy of  the Chinese potato farmers. When we live our lives within the narrow perimeters of our needs, our wants and our agenda, we are, in effect, saving the large potatoes for ourselves. When our gifts to our church and to other charitable causes come from  our leftover "small potatoes," we eventually begin to suffer. Our sense of joy and gratitude begins to shrink. Our obsession with property and possessions starts to increase. The fruits we bring forth in life are soon withered, stunted and pale. We ought not
live like that.

"You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people... once you were no people but now you are God’s people" (1 Peter 2:9-10). Our faith as Christians ought to have an impact upon the way we live our lives. Those of us who believe in Jesus Christ and are baptized in his name are not just anybody. We have a sense of who we are, a style in which we are to live, and a task or mission to fulfill. This ought to say something to us in a world where so many have "small potato" generosity and concern.

October is Stewardship month at Calvary Church. It is a bit sad that a fine and ancient concept like "stewardship" often is translated simply - "the church asking for money." How crass, how simplistic, how wrong. No, the challenge that comes to us this month is simply that we evaluate how we are responding, as God’s people, to all the blessings we receive regularly from the Lord's hand. Mayor Koch in New York City is known for asking people, "How am I doing (as Mayor?)" Stewardship time provides us the chance for the same kind of self-evaluation. How are we doing? Is our heart truly offered to the Lord? Are our energies and financial resources clearly and responsibly being used in acts of love and caring? 

During this month all our members will be asked to consider their level of support for the work of Calvary Church. We hope many of our members will try to increase their weekly giving to the work of our church. May I challenge you to consider taking on some project or responsibility in the life of Calvary during the coming year? One of the saddest commentaries on life in the  80’s is "we have no volunteers?" Please offer to help, please say "yes" when you are asked, and, above all, please discharge your tasks with joy and dependability. We are God's people called that we "may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Let’s gather up some of our "big potatoes" and begin to share through our church that our joy may abound.    
PASTOR ALMQUIST

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STEWARDSHIP - TORN COATS

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(Tuesday Morning Column)
TORN COATS AND FOLDED CHECKS
By David Steele

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I never knew if Eddie Eva was completely evil; but that day when I was a first grader, he personified Old Nick. For he and his gang promised that they were going to wait after school for me and (horror of horrors) were going to pants me.

All through elementary school I heard about pantsing, yet I never saw it. It may never have actually happened, but the stories told about it were graphic. Pants were removed in public and were run up the flagpole. If that ever happened to a person it would, indeed, be the end of all hope and dignity.

Eddie Eva and his henchpersons must have been at least third graders. Thus, it was understandable that I climbed the fence in the rear of the schoolyard to escape him that day. I had to pick my way through a muddy ravine and climb under a barbed-wire fence to freedom. It was on that fence that my new sheepskin coat was torn.

We called the coats sheepskin, but they certainly were not fancy like the ones in the L.L. Bean catalog today, inside was 
something woolly, but the outside was a slick, black material — something intended to be waterproof, I suppose. It was the black material that tore in several places.

Explaining a new coat, now torn, to my parents was not easy. Eddie Eva did not loom as large in their minds as in mine. They took more interest in the mud on shoes and pants and coat, the rips, and the foolishness of their son. The coat was sponged and the rips repaired with wide strips of adhesive tape. I was assured of the humanity of Eddie Eva and instructed to inform authority if threatened. And that was that. I was also instructed that our 1930s family budget had money for a new coat every other year for a growing boy. So I was advised to get used to the adhesive tape.

That was difficult. The longer I wore that coat, the dirtier the tape became. I felt dowdier and dowdier. But my occasional suggestions that perhaps a new coat might be indicated fell on deaf ears. We did not have money for new coats. 

 

ONE DAY, I chanced to sneak a look at the folded check my dad placed the first Sunday of each month in the church collection plate. He eschewed envelopes for some reason. The check was folded and placed nakedly. The placing was generally his to do, but now and then he gave it to me. And I succeeded in sneaking a look at the amount one Sunday as I put it into the plate.

 

I was flabbergasted at the figure! Our family was giving big bucks to the church. I checked out my suspicion in the Sears catalog. Just what I thought: each month we gave away more money than a new coat would cost.

So now I had two bits of information that seemed at odds: we didn’t have money for new coats; we did have more money than a coat would cost to give away. I searched for understanding. The answer my parents gave was simple. As they explained it, we had two kinds of money. Some was ours and  some was God’s. We bought new coats with our money. We supported things like churches and colleges with God’s. God let God’s money pass through our checkbook, but it was clear that new coats were not its proper use. After two years, our money would be used for a new coat. Right now, there were more pressing needs. New coats had nothing to do with God’s money.

I learned a bit about stewardship that day. It took some getting used to, but eventually it made a good deal of Christian sense. And, I guess if asked today why I give, I’d start with, “You see, I have two kinds of money. Some is mine and some is God’s...”
Simple, yes — but very practical! 

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The Presbyterian Outlook, 1/5-12/87, p. 13

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STEWARDSHIP PRAYER

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Generous God, we give thanks to you for the gifts you have given us - our lives, our families, our friends  - time, talents, and possessions. All that we have comes from you. Help us to remember this and rejoice in your goodness, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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by Pastor Jeff Hatch, Westminster Presbyterian Church, West Chester, PA 1991

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