NOTHING'S GOING TO HARM YOU
Romans 14:7-9

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
April 3, 2005 / 2nd Sunday of Easter

Those of you who were here on Maundy Thursday may remember that I preached a sermon about attentiveness: paying attention. One of the great themes of the Bible is paying attention, being aware of your surroundings. I believe that if you play close attention to your surroundings, even what seem like secular surroundings, you can see God at work.

Listen to a conversation at McDonald's, watch two squirrels at play in the park, spend some time in a hospital waiting room, and you can see the great themes of our faith being acted out: Whom do we trust? What makes us safe? What makes for good family living? Should we tell the truth? What does it mean to be fully ourselves? What is the purpose of creation? Watch. Listen. Pay attention and you will gain incredible insight.

When I used to be the leader of a youth group we would get together and at first just talk - about whatever. One day one of the girls in the group suddenly became really angry and hollered at me, "I just can't stand it!" she said. I was baffled. "What?" I asked. "Every time we begin a conversation about what we want to talk about," she said, "you end up turning it into a discussion about God and religion! Not everything has to do with religion!"

Well, she is now a minister. So you go figure.

Its like today's text: whether we live or whether we die, we are God's. No matter where we find ourselves, we are God's.

Let me try a little experiment with you. As I said, you can find God anywhere. Let me read something to you that at first might not seem religious. But listen carefully, pay attention. Then after church come up to me at the door over here, and tell me if you heard a religious theme in what I said? If you heard something about God and good living in what I read? If so, tell me what you heard. Pay attention.

One of the strange things I like to do is read children's books. This is one of my favorites. Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber.¹

[Here the book, was read. Copyrighted material is not reproduced in the printed sermon.² .]

[The song "Not While I'm Around," music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, was then sung.]

Amen.

1 - Waber, Bernard, Ira Sleeps Over, (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston,
1972)

2- You can find out more about the book, Ira Sleeps Over, on Houghton Mifflin's web site.