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The Rev. Dr. Ozzie E. Smith, Jr., is pastor of Covenant United Church of Christ, South Holland, IL. He is also a trustee of the Alliance for Christian Media.

Member of:

United Church of Christ

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Covenant United Church of Christ, South Holland, IL

Dr. Ozzie Smith on "Let the Little Ones Come unto Me"

September 29, 2009

Dr. Ozzie Smith reflects on this week's Day1 sermon, "Let the Little Ones Come Unto Me" by Bishop Will Willimon.

Amen Bishop Willimon! The opening story is a page-turner that allows us to see the ongoing reality of human limits. That sermon allowed us to see the underbelly of human limits. I could see those children and smell the alcohol on the wife's breath. Limits create unfortunate circumstances especially when our understanding of them--is limited. Limits are stains that cannot be removed from the human condition. Alcohol addiction pushed that marriage to its limit--that husband tried, but had nothing more to try with--divorce was inevitable. Bishop Willimon paints a picture that allows us to see and smell the limits of human choices that sour along the way. Yet, in the gospels and in real life, our limits never seem to exhaust God's presence--we leave but God stays. With God nothing shall be limited--even us!

Bishop Willimon introduces us to "limit" in a way that allows us to see it without denying it--he invites us to see that we too are "limited little ones" in God's limitless presence. We will always have limits, but our limits are manageable with God. We have permission to walk by faith, not by sight, knowing that while limits may hound us, God's grace beckons us little ones to God's unconditional and limitless love that saves us from that which we cannot help but be--limited, but not divorced. Thanks Bishop Willimon for a thought-provoking message. Thanks Day1 for the lift!

--Ozzie Smith