Eric’s Sunday Sermon; Our Gratitude for Each Other “Who Owns You?”

I am not doing very well here. I refuse to do well. Never will ever again. We do super duper well. Today is the best day ever. Even though yesterday was the best day ever. Laugh at us but that is how my son and I say it.

“My” birds wake me up just before dawn every morning. I sleep with windows open. “My” birds are really not mine. They belong to trees and mother earth and such. Or maybe they just belong. I am working on the concept of “ours” or “my”. Can you figure why we say “my” wife? Or “my” son. Or even “my” home. They just plain and simple are not “mine”. I “have” loved ones. I “have” them? “My dog”? If I say “my” mom does that mean she is not my siblings?

I go with “this is the day that the Lord has made” I shall rejoice and be glad in it. Nope not my day that I have made. What do I own? Nada. Silch, Nothing and for sure not what I call mine.

Maybe we could call it the big “Let Go” and let Love. Ownership was such an antihuman for our Native Americans. I own the dirt? The fruits, vegetables and flowers of “my” labor are mine? Well brothers and sisters they are not mine. They just darn sure better be love’s.

Check this out about God and God being Love; Matthew 6:25-34 New International Version (NIV)

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

I somehow fail for I worry about “My” stuff. I have to keep it. My wife sneaks into my closet and office and fills bags for our Disabled American Veterans. How rude to violate “my” stuff like that. Somehow giving “our” stuff away is like filling “our” heart with love. She fills the bags and I take ‘em to donation. One time I got a receipt for the donation. Now that is just wrong. Not my stuff but Love’s.

Now one time for about 15 years I “had” a dog. He stood 3 feet at the haunches. A full on Chow Chow. The ones with purple tongues and a Mane like a lion. One time he got caught up in some nasty wire. I called my buddy rancher Pat and he told me how to sew him up. That needle must have been hand size. Needed needle nosed pliars to get her done. I never once worried about my kids and wife being safe.

Ojo Roso his little brother got angry. So a different rancher took him in to guard chickens from Coyotes. Last I saw him he knocked me down and licked my face.

Point is that they were not “my” dogs but I was their master – kind of. I could go on about dogs that graced me with their friendship. Not and never were “my” dogs. Going to the pound so some mutt can have my son.

On the other hand my computer with which I write kind of is owned by me. Check out the word “own”. A martial arts, meditation and yoga guru told me once to “own” all wrong. We can fix what we own but not what another owns. I own arguments and bad behavior – yours and mine so I can rewrite the script. If it is your script I maybe not able to help us in love. In my mind Jesus owns me. I can start any old day over as he owns my love for he is my love. “Eric the only thing that can own you is love. Hate cannot and shall not own you, apathy is likewise not an owner or master”.

Show we just move along and remind ourselves again and again through supplication to love that it is not ours it is loves. Why do I fight this? My must I pray constantly and without ceasing to be filled with love and not “mine”? For me I am not even certain about “yours”. But I back off and let you “have” yours. Especially with my family. That I think might just be worldly respect. So I thank all for giving me the love that is “theirs”.

Eve of destruction. I know that sounds ominous. It is not in this sense. Round about 1945 houses were built in tracts. Meaning one developer would build 100 houses at a time and sell them. About then they got rid of alleys. And they did something that was really wrong. They cut the eves short. An eve should be about 3.5 feet extending from the roof. In order to save on costs they cut them back to around 2 feet. 100 houses saving that much board feet was huge. Maybe a good idea for saving trees back then. But it ruins your foundation. Rain gutters can help but only if we trap the water for later gardening.

And now think about owning solar panels. Sounds so great for the environment. When you own and place them it seems so good. But has anyone explained about the heavy metal. Where you going to put that when you are done? You better own that. It will contaminate for long after your great grandchildren pass on.

So perhaps we do not own things. But we must own what we pass on. I would like to own love. I would like love to own me. Seems like a good inheritance I can “leave” my children. Or, I hope I already have. We say “pass it forward”, to me that sounds right. Like it is not ours to hold. Love is funny that way, the more you “give away” the more room you have to own more. Like a rain bucket. You should empty it from time to time so it can catch more to help the flowers grow. I cannot own the water but it lets me use it for good. Thanks for the rain that is borrowed.

My bride just called me to leave early and be careful driving in the rain. She also insisted that I fill my tank with gas and check my tires. I think I admit she owns me. I cannot think of a better owner.

Again I refer to the Bible, I am no scholar but only a student therein. I am thinking about around Romans 8 maybe. God owns us. Purchased at a price – meaning the Passion if I remember right. Now God is Love so that would mean that we are Love’s. I am down with that. Yes I am my mother’s son but I am also love’s.