Sacred Moments

 

I had the opportunity to fill in for Pastor Ann yesterday. 

Not only did I get to lead worship,

But I also got to lead Bible Study, 

Which is something I haven’t done in quite some time. 

 

The Bible study outline was very sparse. 

It was on the second of the listed fruits of the Spirit:

Joy. 

 

The outline listed one or two verses of scripture and then asked four questions on those verses. 

It gave three sections like this.

And that’s it.

The rest was up to me.

 

And so I talked the fruit of the spirit song

Because how can you not teach the fruit of the spirit song when doing a study on the fruit of the spirit?! :-)

And then I asked a very simple question:

What is the difference between joy and happiness?

And that was the springboard for our conversation.

 

We studied Philippians 4 and John 15, 

Both passages of which I have the majority underlined. 

We talked about the real life application of those passages

And how it’s not always easy to rejoice.

We talked about complicated things like war and grief and death and heartache and rugged individualism and narcissism and divorce and caretaking 

And how sometimes God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers

Yet how there is almost always something good and right and noble to find,

Especially in friends.

And Jesus has called us friend.

 

We talked about how sometimes we feel happiness and joy, but sometimes we don’t.

But we agreed that, in Christ, there is a peace that passes understanding—

There is a joy that runs deeper than happiness—

And there is something that we just can’t explain,

Even in the midst of hardship. 

 

There were a couple of moments that I felt like I was in a grief support group

Or an AA meeting

More than a Bible study.

We didn’t go into the historical relevance of Philippians or John.

We didn’t get into the original language of the text or talk about the context to which each passage was written.

We simply opened God’s word,

Read it aloud,

Created the space for the spirit to bring up what she would, 

And then we held space for one another to share and to be heard. 

 

Friends,

Life is hard.

We cannot pretend that it is anything different.

Yeah, we get to walk this journey together

And we get to live it with glimpses of happiness 

And joy that cannot be described

And peace that carries us through at all.

I don’t begin to know how it works.

I don’t begin to try to explain prayer and God’s intervention in this world.

I just know that there’s something there

And that in holy, sacred moments like yesterday,

We get to share it together. 

 

And for that,

I am grateful.

 

Amen.