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Showing posts from July, 2019

Mid Summer Sermon

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Sermon Preached at Trinity by the Sea Pentecost IV, July 7, 2019 The Rev. J. James Derkits A poem by the Sufi Poet Hafiz If God invited you to a party and said,  “Everyone in the ballroom tonight will be my special Guest.”  How would you then treat them When you arrived? Indeed, indeed! And Hafiz knows There is no one in this world Who is not upon [God's] jeweled Dance Floor.  (from The Gift , Hafiz, ed. Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin Books, 1999) I return to that poem from time to time and try to remember I’m living on God’s jeweled dancefloor, and to wonder if I’m listening deeply to the Spirit's music… I don’t know how much time you spend thinking about the purpose of the church--I hope it's no surprise that I spend a lot.  Summer seems to be a good time for that; one of my friends calls Summer the least religious time of the year, by which he means, quite spiritually, God’s abundance is on parade, the rhythms of the earth point to God’