My family has been attending church in person again, today was our 2nd time. We feel safer because I’m fully vaccinated and my wife gets her 2nd dose in a couple of days. The church we started attending is relatively small and they practice social distancing better than anywhere else I’ve seen (not just churches, but any public place) and keep the building well ventilated. But, none of this has anything to do with what I want to share today.
As I’ve shared on this blog of mine in the past (though all of my old posts are gone – I may bring them all back, even the ones that may make me cringe…we’ll see) justice is something very important to me. I believe it is something that is very important to God and at the heart of who Jesus was and why he was here. I could go deeper into that, but again it’s not what I want to share, though it is closely related.
Today, I want to share a video of the sermon from the church we attended. Not simply because I want you all to hear a sermon and come to Jesus (though I do continue to pray everyone will know how loved and valued and incredibly important they are to Jesus), but because I believe this is at the core of who we are as human beings – let alone as those of us who say we follow Jesus. I might expound on it more in my own words sometime in the future, but for now I think that you should hear it from this video. It’s a call to each of us, every one of us that walks this earth, because we desperately need to remember the dignity and value of other human beings and the love that they need that maybe, just maybe, we can give. Doesn’t have to be grandiose expressions or change-the-world scale operations. It can be small, simple gestures. A lot of small, simple gestures can have pretty world-changing implications, if we let them and we don’t let ourselves become frozen because we’re intimidated by the grandiose expression we think needs to happen to make a difference and we fear we can’t do it.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Click on the link below and watch the video – starting at the timestamp 21:43. You can watch the entire service, if you want. Sing the songs, listen to the prayers, all of it. But, the heart of what I want you to hear is at that timestamp. I’d love to hear what you think about it afterward in the comments below. The pastor’s name is Jakob Topper.
Russell J. Fellows 