Awakening Our Senses to God’s Love (Testimony Sunday)
Testimony Sunday – August 31st, 2025 – Awakening our senses to God’s love
Today is the fifth Sunday of the month, which means that instead of our usual sermon at this time, we are going to share testimonies with one another, glimpses of where we have seen Jesus at work in and among us. Every once in a while, we might get to share a story that we feel is more or less complete. But really, the story goes on, because what we’re noticing is really God’s story, which we are all a part of!
Thinking about the word glimpses reminded me of Mariana’s excellent guided reflections which she recently shared with our pastoral care and leadership team. She invited us to awaken our senses to God’s love by considering how we experience God in all of our senses.
Twentieth century American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar, Thomas Merton, penned these beautiful words in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation (and this is quite a long quote) – “What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as ‘play’ is perhaps what he himself takes most seriously. At any rate, the Lord plays and diverts himself in the garden of his creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear his call and follow him in his mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Basho we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash – at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the ‘newness,’ the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.
Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”
I invite each one of us who are present here today, in the room or on Zoom, to consider each of our senses as a help in remembering and sharing glimpses of how we or another has become more awakened to God’s love, how we have experienced God in the middle of the circumstances of life.
Listen as I describe some of the ways in which paying attention to God via our senses helps us to be more fully awakened to God’s love, presence, power, and grace.
2 Corinthians 2:15 – “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
Fragrances of grace; scents of sacred memories; aromas of comfort or joy …
Matthew 6:21-23 – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
Glimpses of God’s beauty; Jesus’ gaze of love; spiritual clarity …
John 10:27 – “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
The good shepherd’s voice; sounds that lead to a greater awareness of God; silence and stillness …
1 John 1:1 – “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.”
Being held by God; the healing, comfort, or embrace of others; courage and wisdom in offering Jesus’ healing touch to others …
Psalm 34:8 – “O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.”
Slowly savoring the Lord’s goodness; cultivating hunger for God; expressing gratitude to God for physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment …
Our stories are not over yet. There are more pages to come. I invite you today to be willing, humble, and brave, and share whatever glimpses of God the Lord highlights to you today. Whether we’re the ones in the story, the ones telling the story, or the ones hearing the story, we will all be strengthened and encouraged. The Holy Spirit really does turn ordinary people like us into agents of transformation as we simply do small things with great love. And as we share these small stories, the entire body of Christ is built up, encouraged, and strengthened. If you have a story to share and you’re in the room, I invite you to make your way to the front seat over here in readiness. If you have a story to share and you’re on Zoom, please let Paul know and he’ll give me a signal.
Come, Holy Spirit!
