"The Only Sermon My Grandmother Ever Preached"
”He endured the cross, despising the shame..Heb. 12:2
My Grandmother’s name is Rose Moore, I surely love her! I will never express my love for her in the past tense, because true love is eternal and I know there is coming a Day when I shall once again see, hear and feel her loving heartbeat as she welcomes me home!
The greatest thing about my grandmother, and I believe ones like her, is their TRULY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!!
There was a time when all the other members of my family (Preachers, Prisoners, Rich & Poor) had given up on little Stevie, (wow, how I hated that name)! They wouldn’t answer their phones, wouldn’t open their doors, wouldn’t invite me to church, or to come over for Christmas or Thanksgiving. I had one uncle who took me off his visitors list while he was in prison (now that's sad), and there were some who didn’t even want me to be at my Grandmother’s funeral!
The only time I ever remember seeing her angry (and I realize now it was righteous indignation) was when the family had gather for an intervention to talk about how some ‘TOUGH LOVE’ program was the only thing that could help little Stevie, and Oh how they loved to quote:
1Cr 5:5
"To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
I remember her small frail frame rising to it’s feet that day in the middle of our living room with my Dad, Mother, Uncles, and Aunties, all sitting around as if they were members of the Great White Throne Judgement
Then it started; The only sermon my Grandmother ever preached!
"Let me tell ya’ll something about “Tough Love’;
TOUGH LOVE; is leaving the very throne room of God to come and dwell among men!
TOUGH LOVE; is being despised and rejected by all mankind!
TOUGH LOVE; is bearing the sins of the whole world upon your shoulders!
TOUGH LOVE; is receiving the stripes of affliction for all humanity!
TOUGH LOVE; is asking someone to pray with you in your darkest hours and they all fall asleep!
TOUGH LOVE is having soldiers cram a crown of thorns upon your already beaten head!
TOUGH LOVE is having spikes driven into your hands and feet as they hammer you onto a tree!
TOUGH LOVE is then carrying that cross up Calvary’s Hill while being spit upon, mocked and lashed with cords of bone and glass!
TOUGH LOVE is being raised up high and a spear pierced into your side!
TOUGH LOVE is during all this pain and shame to still be able to say “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”!
TOUGH LOVE is the lonelines you would feel as your own Father turns His face away!
TOUGH LOVE is crying out from the depths of your agony ‘My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me!!
She stopped! Silence Reigned! There were no Amens to be heard, no hallelujahs filled the house, no offering plate was passed, no, not even an altar call was made!!
From that day forward, never again was I called little Stevie, but Stephen!
From that day forward, ever phone call I made was quickly answered!
Every door was opened whenever I knocked!
Every Thanksgiving I was handed the first plate of Turkey and Dressing!
Every Christmas I was asked to open the first present!
When my uncle was released from prison, he called me to come pick him up!
When my Grandmother passed on, I was asked to give her Eulogy!!
As I was pulling away from the grave side service on that cold rainy day, I looked back for one last time, and there Saints, the brightest Light I have ever seen, piecred the darkness of those clouds and shined directly upon her grave, but then as suddenly as it came, it receded back into the heavens, leaving behind, and filling my car with the sweetest fragrance of Roses I have ever smelled.!!
“Tough Love”
That was the title of : The Only Sermon My Grandmother Ever Preached!!
Think I'll preach it Sunday, if that's OK with you Grandmother? I LOVE YOU!!
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