Remembering

This morning I preached at the San Rafael church I served for 4 years.  I've been deeply retired for 4 or 5 years now, which means I don't even want to do ministerial things like preach or lead retreats so this was a stretch for me.  The sermon was titled Remembering.  In it,  I recalled some of the great things this little church has done over the years.  What I came away with was a sense of the great love so many showed for me.  Maybe that is the best of all.  Ministry is all about love and how wonderful to have that be remembered.  When I made the switch from teaching to ministry, I remember some of my students asking me why I was leaving teaching.  I replied that I had figured out that the energy of my teaching was my love for my students and for my subject and I wanted to be in a place where I was able to talk about that love.  They looked at me blankly and said, "but we knew that."  How had they seen that, I wondered?  When I began serving churches, it was clear that the congregations just needed to be loved and so I did that among other things.  It was a privilege and also a challenge to love even the most irascible people.  Maybe, just maybe, the secret of life is love.  Maybe, just maybe, when we love others, we forget about ourselves and open to love.  Love is catching, like yawns.  When someone around us is loving, we tend to become more like that.  As a docent at the Botanical Garden, it is my privilege to share my love/passion for the plants and the natural world with the children and adults on my tours.  The Botanical Garden is now one of my happy places where I go and get filled up with energy and peace and love.  I am so very grateful to be in places where love can be shared and grow.

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