I’m no April fool, I took God’s peace when He offered it – this time for writing and delivering a sermon for Palm Sunday… Peace and priorities and persistence, Psalms and Palms.

I wrote and wrote and wrote when God gave me a theme for a sermon, which I volunteered to give with such enthusiasm that essentially I was like character Horseshack on the TV show ‘Welcome Back Kotter’, saying: “Ooh Ooh Ooh”!!! Hand up before I knew the answer… I didn’t worry, I took God’s peace, and path, and I WROTE.

And God did not and does not disappoint, God provides ABUNDANTLY, and so I wrote and wrote and wrote over the course of 2 weeks, new sections, appropriate scriptures, and included these wow chapters of prophecy from God that for some reason no one seems to preach about – Revelation…. 

And then I TRIMMED and trimmed and trimmed… I originally wrote about Mary and Martha, but scratched that…  Yes I wrote a section about my own faith journey, but I lined that out because that might take years to explain. I decided what I already knew: God’s journey is more than sufficient for this sermon for any sermon. And the expounding about your own journey is best to just a few, with a tea cup in your hand and at a kitchen table… or a porch… or in a blog… or anytime you are asked specifically about your journey…

My startling moment for when God reinforced the theme of this particular writing was well after I wrote Paul Harvey’s tagline: “The Rest of the Story” into my pages of notes.  Well, about a week later, my mom, OUT OF THE BLUE, quotes Paul Harvey. WEIRD!!!! I mean how often do we mention Paul Harvey, from such a long long time ago… Apparently God knows how to trigger our memories, as well as knowing how to lay the groundwork to let us know that He is in charge. Cool…

We must take His Peace and USE IT, in the middle of the really strong thunderstorms, I was editing and focused, not really giving much of myself over to stress. I watched the radar, stayed inside obviously, checked on friends. Trees didn’t fall or power fail in my neighborhood, neither did God in holding onto my focus. 

And so after the regular sermon, I actually had a chance to give the sermon in miniature TWICE again in the afternoon… cool… Once on the phone in decompression and once sitting on a friend’s porch… I was helping my friend clean out her family house and she was sad to not make church, and yet with mere hours to her financial close, she had to do what she had to do… Clean Sort Toss Keep Move On… She asked for church palms and of course I brought her some extra… I also brought the children’s message experiment to do on the porch while resting my legs too. We talked about this broken world, about Jesus’s journey, about us not grumbling because we know that REST OF THE STORY…

I came across many items her dad owned in her house related to Pope John Paul the second, and he was the pope of my youth… He had that warm fuzzy huggable pope demeanor, he was an inspiration of the time. What I remember from a documentary about him is that he was different and unusual for the priests of the time, he would take a canoeing trip with a youth group and then while camping would use an upside-down canoe as a worship altar… He took services and sermons “on the road”….  No need to keep church only in the building… Likewise, so I also brought the message outside this day, meet the people where they are – even in the car… And we have great company, as Jesus took sermons and serving on the road too… out to meet the people… even on the cross, Jesus was still all powerful in giving PEACE. In the middle of pain, Jesus knew paradise was awaiting for all who believed. Peace – don’t give it up – don’t give it back – don’t forget to grab onto it.

God says: I gave you MY peace, now USE IT.

God IS guiding us, in thick and thin.

God’s got this…

Take it…

Amen

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