Sermon - 9/5/21

25 min•0 plays•0 favorites

Religion

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It is good to be back with you. I am deeply grateful for the time I spent away. It was wonderful to let go of all the clutter in life and the clutter in my head. It was refreshing to let go of work and deadlines, and just play with my grandson. It was life-giving to spend priceless time with him, my son and daughter-in-law, and simply enjoy being while taking in the beauty of creation. Time like that makes my imagination and creativity really bubble and thrive. This morning, I would like to ask you to use your imaginations as we try a little exercise. To begin, I ask you to sit back, close your eyes and let go of the clutter of thoughts that are likely present in each of your heads. With your eyes still closed, let you’re your imagination start working and begin to picture Jesus. Take a few seconds to think about the image of Jesus you are seeing in your mind’s eye. Note what he looks like and what you see him doing. Now, open your eyes and I am going to ask you a few questions. In your imagined picture of Jesus….. <ul> <li>Does he have a full beard or is he beardless?</li> <li>Is he calm, serene, pleasant, and peaceful?</li> <li>Is he wearing a white garment?</li> <li>Is he surrounded by children, maybe holding one on his lap?</li> <li>Is he smiling?</li> <li>Are his arms stretched out in welcome?</li> <li>Is he performing some sort of miracle or offering food to the hungry?</li> </ul> Now, be very honest with yourself. Did you respond with a “yes” to many of these questions? The truth of the matter is that, for most of us, our image of Jesus was shaped by stories we learned in childhood and the pictures we have seen, pictures that were often used in children’s Bibles. And, quite frankly, most of those pictures depict a calm, happy, inviting, white, northern European Jesus. However, if we take an honest look at the gospels, we often see a very different picture of Jesus. First, he was not white and

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