Benediction

Our Minister at the Seward United Methodist Church had an especially interesting sermon this morning. It was about his usual Benediction.  For many of us (Numbers 6:24-26) “The Lord bless you and keep you...” is the familiar Benediction that we looked forward to while “growing-up”. Rev. Dale has been in Seward a couple years and has been using the following: “May you love your God enough that you love nothing else too much.  May you fear your Lord enough that you fear nothing else at all”.  In his sermon he talked about the words: Love/Fear and how they are derived from the Greek language meaning “to stand in awe of”. He went on to use a current day story of hearing a “storm chaser” describe his awe of a tornado on the ground and how his awe turned to fear as it approached a town with devastating impact. It was an interesting story of how some languages have words that better describe situations and how definitions evolve. I was reminded of my Aunt Anna, years ago, saying that she wanted to tell Grandma Vrana of Aunt Rose’es sudden death in Czech because the words were much more descriptive and comforting. I congratulated our Minister on his sermon. Then we enjoyed social hour and at our table, talking about Monarchs and Butterfly Milkweed and the Nebraska Sandhills.