May 12, 2023

Dear Road Church Friends,

The poem I share with you today is a celebration of a mother’s love. In my search for this week’s poem, its last line caught my eye; He is heard to speak through a mother’s love. This thought fit perfectly with the theme I have chosen for Sunday’s sermon. Its title is “Love Divine.” It’s a personal reflection on God’s love for the world. Our closest experience of God’s love is our mother’s love. Its tenderness and ferocity is on full display in the animal kingdom. Humans learned long ago to avoid at all cost a mother bear and her cubs. Mother love is woven into the fabric of creation. God’s divine mother love is most clearly seen in the life of Jesus. His love for all of us is the dynamic heart and defining feature of the Christian faith. The one who saw this most clearly and wrote it down for the ages is John, who has been aptly named, the Apostle of Love. I leave you with his words:  Since God so loved us, we ought to love one another, and if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.

SCRIPTURE: John 14:1-12 (below) & John 14:15-16, 19-21     SERMON: Love Divine

“Please don’t worry. Trust God and trust me. There is plenty of room in my Father's house where I am going to prepare a place for you, so that we can be together again. You know the way there, don’t you?” Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t understand what you are saying. How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way to the Father. If you know me, you know my Father. In fact, you already know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, tell us plainly what you mean when you say that we have seen the Father.” Jesus said, “How long will it take before you realize who I am? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Don’t you realize that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? My words and deeds are not my own. They are from the Father who speaks and acts in me, because I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If you don’t believe that, then believe me for the sake of my words and deeds themselves. Furthermore, anyone who believes in me will also do what I am doing, and, will do much more than I have done, because I am going to the Father.”

A MOTHER’S LOVE

by Emily Taylor

There is not a grand inspiring thought,

There is not a truth by wisdom taught,

There is not a feeling pure and high,

That may not be read in a mother’s eye.

There are teachings in earth, in sky, and air,

The heavens the glory of God declare,

But louder than voice, beneath, above,

He is heard to speak through a mother’s love.

   May the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of God’s Spirit be with you.

 Pastor Norm

This service on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/9hhVtrroA-k?feature=share