August 10, 2008 Sermon Title:  How Small - How Big the World Reverend James (Jim) Langdoc, Pastor Scripture:  Galatians 3:23-29; John 21:1-8        God comes to us in ways we scarcely recognize.   Casual, unplanned events sometimes reveal to us the reality and truth of God.  This happens more often than we know.  Brushes against God (as I have come to label them) sometimes do not go unrecognized, and can provide the seedbed for valuable insight, inspiration for good ministry, and even a Sunday message or sermon.         Many years ago when my daughter was a first or second grader, I took her to our local library to return and borrow books.  She was fascinated by a large globe on a stand that was taller than she was.  And so I pointed to the place where we lived, and two other places where her grandparents lived, and two other countries where my wife and I had recently traveled.  And I was pleased to have given her what I thought was a great geography lesson.          She threw her arms around the globe and said, "I love it.  It's so big!"   "Of course," I said.  "And the real world is even bigger."  "Is it even bigger than that?" she asked.  The child had no clear meaning of what I was saying.  At age six, she had no real sense of space, of distance.  She was concerned with the here and now.         But children do have a sense of people, even at a very early age.  In another church in which I was serving as pastor, I observed a three-year-old in the nursery, putting her arm around a child who was crying.  She said:  "It's gonna be all right.  Your mommy will be coming back."  Children have a sense of love and care given to them and want to give that love to others.  Children really cause you to wonder.  Consider Jesus' words:  "a little child shall lead them."  Children are not selfish beings as some might think, but are created in the image of God.  They are in a state of loving and being loved, and, as someone once said, children "are trailing clouds of glory."         The point of all of this is that one of our tasks is to be [like children] open and reach out to others.  Having  experienced Jesus' self-giving love, how could we not want to reach out in love to help those around us who are in need?  And are we not therefore also willing to learn about those of other cultures and traditions - - to respect them and give them a sense of self, even as it has been given to us?  When the reality and truth of God are revealed to us, does not our connection to and concern for all of creation expand, far and wide, beyond our selves, our homes, our community, our nation, our world, perhaps even to the stars and beyond?                                                                               (Back to Sermon Menu)