Prayer

Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen 

Sermon    

 This is God’s wondrous world each marvelous morning.  Each day dawns and the world begins to wake.  As the sun crests the day you cannot help but think… but wonder “as God creates the new day does God think. “hmm what adventure shall I set before my people today, what wonder will be revealed to them and how will they receive it?   

Each day we are given to seek out the wonder of God. To be open to the Spirit’s leading

So, if, you go down in the woods today    You're sure of a big surprise    If you go down in the woods today    You'd better go in disguise!

Why? you may ask.   Is it that we don’t want to disturb the wild life?  Are we lying in wait for the perfect picture   

No. For if you go down in the woods today, you may surmise that

For every bear that ever there was     Will gather there for certain   Because today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.  Just Teddy Bears?

Well no, not just Teddy Bears.   For you see at the Teddy bear’s picnic in the wood’s today you won’t be surprised, and you won’t need a disguise, for every bear there knows, that all should be fair and the Bears gather all those that would like to share in the fare there.  For The bears are truly a welcoming  bears and quick to offer a chair   

 So if you go down in the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise because on the road , or on the path near the grass, these wonderful friends from our childhood past, those friends that find new young people to comfort and assure are gathering   there.

You see those stuffy little friends may not walk or talk but you see they have been and always will be a gift of love.  They are charged in the Spirit to always listen, offer hugs and most of all unconditional love.

That is why they are so welcoming.   

This is why for many child and adult alike  there is a heart warming when we encounter the love of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin and all their friends.  They are open and welcoming in their love . The gospel speaks of welcoming Love 

Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” 

Little ones, children that is, and most certainly Teddy bears, don’t see the artificial boundaries we create as adults.  They don’t see race or religion or economic status. They see friends and potential friends. When a child see someone hurt they have compassion. They see the world in a constant state of awe and wonder and Teddy bears that are real as you and me.     It is not until they begin to grow in the world do they learn biases and prejudices that separate us.   They lose that sense of Welcoming love. 

Jesus often holds children in higher regard then they were normally seen. They are in many ways the unseen in Jesus’s day. 

So to even welcome one with something as simple as a cup of water is to see the world through compassionate and caring eyes. 

The gospel calls us to be an open and welcoming community.   

To gather together in one place to share the blanket so to speak.  

Not only to allow this place to be a place of welcome, but to grow our spiritualty and to share our faith, in how we live our lives  to share the word of God found in scripture