Every Single Blessing: "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" Part 2

Good morning, church family!

This week has been full, and joyful. From singing and praying with folks at the 9/11 memorial ceremony on Monday to meeting the new chaplain out at the base, Chaplain Brown, to celebrating successful medical procedures and answered prayers, to spending a couple of hours with Marshall and Joanne Brown to tour their farm, to just spending time with good friends, I have felt surrounded by the love and power of God. I hope you have, too.

This month is Back to Church Month around the country, where we all mentally and physically return from our summer pursuits to the ministries and sacred rhythms of the year. We started with an AWESOME ice cream social -- huge thank you to everyone who brought and set up all of the goodies! It was so much fun -- and the beginning of a sermon series using the verses of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" to celebrate the blessings of God that we receive through our family of faith.

It's one of my favorite hymns, this one. I love the melody, I love the imagery of God "tuning" our hearts like an instrument toward perfect praise. I love the heartfelt sweetness expressed in thanks for God providing safety, help, sacrificing everything for us. I love the acknowledgement that God has been with us always, through every moment, bringing us safely through times of joy and struggle. And I love the very last verse, a beautiful one that isn't even in our hymnal! Don't want to give that one away just yet though...we will talk about it next week. :-) Last week, we focused on the first verse:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount; I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of thy redeeming love.

And so we gave thanks for worship, and talked about how the people of God have sang of their love and thanks for God's mercy for thousands of years. We talked a bit about the legacy of worship and music given us by our forebears, and how new music is constantly being written as God's mercies touch the hearts and change the lives of more people every day. We talked about our identity as the beloved, forgiven children of God, empowered and set free. This week, we will talk together about belonging...and about how God's grace is not only given to us as individuals, but to us in community.

75 years ago or so, Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs...a pyramid of things that human beings need for survival and a fulfilling life. Obviously, the most basic ones are the need for food, shelter, and safety. The very next one is the need to belong. As God notices immediately in Genesis, after creating all that we see and calling it very, very good, "It is not good that the human being should be alone." We are, all of us, created for community. Love only exists in relationship, in community. The love of God is only made known in relationship. We will sing together the second verse of the hymn that begins "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come..." but my pastor friend Becky Stockdale (shout out to Portola UMC!) brought another song to mind that now I can't get out of my head:

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You wanna be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same.
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

Aaaaand now it's stuck in your head, too. You're welcome. :-)

Seriously, though. To know, and be known. To be in a place and among people who are glad you are there. Who understand your struggles, and share their own. Who laugh and rejoice with you, and whose happiness is even more important to you than your own. Who love and care for you, and who you love and care for. That -- not a particular geographical location -- is what home is. Paradise.

Let's worship together tomorrow. You might like to read Isaiah 43:1-4a, and pray on it as you prepare your heart for worship. See you in the morning!

Love and blessings,
Pastor Dawn