Our exploration of “thin places” – where we grow closer to God and God grows closer to us – continues with SACRED SPACES … Symbols, Places, Devotions.
Perhaps it is the Sanctuary, here at Abiding Love; perhaps at the church where you grew up. Places where a sense of the “numinous” – the presence of the divine – comes easily. Places where re-visiting re-connects you with pivotal times in your life. Places which have become sacred in your experience. Sacred space can be a place where you go, or it may be created by what you do when you are there. Sacred spaces are thin places, maybe for a lot of people, or maybe for you alone. But we are blessed by them, because God meets us there!
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click here to listen to the early service
click here for Sermon Audio Only
click here for Childrens Sermon Audio Only
Below are Readings and the Prayer of the Day.
Where is sacred space for you in your life? Let’s explore together!
Love and blessings,
- Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org
PRAYER OF THE DAY -------------------
God of grace, lead us to sacred spaces. Help us to find you there, and to find ourselves more truly there. We long for communion, heart-to-heart presence with you. Amen.
READINGS ----------------------------
First Reading: Exodus 3:1-6
3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6 He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Psalm 46:4-11
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth."
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:9-13
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Gospel: John 9:1-12
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, 7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." 10 But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" 11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." 12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."
