getting out the word

the seventh sunday of easter

the PRAYER …

O God, form the minds of your faithful people into your one will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

the READING …

[Jesus prayed:] “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” john 17:20-26

the DEVOTION …

I just went down the hallway to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Instant! (BTW, thing I miss most about not having a building of our own? The coffee pot!) Anyway, while I was there, I stuck my head into the fellowshipHall and looked around. It’s all, pretty much, the same as we left it. Same stained glass. Same pews. Same altar pushed off to the side. The one thing different was a white board. Four foot by three foot. With four words are written on it. In black. “Heaven,” it says, “is the goal.”

Now, in all fairness, I don’t know the context of those words. When they were written. Why. But after reading the gospel for this week, once again, I realized – contrary to popular opinion – heaven’s NOT the goal! Not of faith! Not of believing! In fact, heaven – in the bible – is rarely mentioned as a destination, at all. The whole reason for Jesus is the love! The being loved! The loving! But we get so carried away. With the supernatural. With the otherworldly. That we miss what’s right under our noses! What’s right before our eyes! “So that the love with which you [– Father –] have loved me,” says Jesus, “may be in them!” It’s the love that matters! It’s always been the love! And will always be!

Midland Lutheran Church
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