5/29/2007

Bring them home

The continued warfare weighs on my spirit.
Please help in this grassroots "bring them home" campaign.

I just started a new blog. http://www.ivotebringthemhome.blogspot.com/
It has the following information in it. I will not be adding any comments to the blog, I simply want it used for people to email their Senators and Representatives every day with the following simple message.

Please be a part and do what you can to spread this information. I have provided a link to the blog to the left for future reference.

Pastor Dan

I vote!
I want you to stop the war and bring them home!

Senate contact info: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

House of Representatives contact info:http://www.house.gov/writerep/

1.Go to the Senate contact site and choose your state.
2.Bookmark the page with your Senator’s web sites.
3.Go to the House of Representatives contact site and choose your state.
4.Enter your zip code.
5.Bookmark the page with your Representative’s web sites.
6.Copy the simple message from above and email it to your Senators and Representative every day until our solders come home.

Thank You
Pastor Dan

The Holy Trinity


John 16:12-15

The Spirit comes silently into our hearts
bringing love
bringing life
and pointing to the one who brought us life
Jesus the Christ
The Living God
In our desires to be the center
and our desires to turn inward
wrapping ourselves up in ever smaller packages
fearing that if we are not the center
there will be no center
in our emptiness
longing to find that to which we can cling
The Spirit comes
and points to the Christ
the one who walked with us
the one who lived with us
the one who was us
and died like us
only to live and bring life
This is the one to whom the Spirit points
simply
quietly
that we may know God’s love for us
and burst forth in new life
new creation

A New Creation, Yes!!!

Saturday June 9th, John 16: He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. As you are drawn into a relationship with someone, you are drawn into the intimate knowledge of their likes and dislikes, feelings and hopes, their dreams and abilities. The Spirit brings us into an intimate relationship with the God of Creation, shown to us in the work of Jesus the Christ. It is in that relationship that life has meaning. It is the New Creation, Yes!!! It is Good!!!

Catch the wind

Friday June 8th, John 16: "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when (s)he, the Spirit of truth, comes, (s)he will guide you into all truth. I always thought the Greek word for the Holy Spirit was a feminine noun. When the Spirit comes to us, she will guide us in all truth, not knowledge, not wealth, not power, but truth. And in that truth we are sent into the world to serve. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not for narcissistic ecstaticism, but rather, as was shown in Acts, a good stiff wind at out backs as we go out into all the world.

Hallelujah, Praise God

Thursday June 7th, Romans 5: In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Look how God has been with me through the bumps, dips and ditches, I can’t wait to see what is next. You know those boring parts of scripture with the long list of names, most of which you can not pronounce? That is the writers say of saying, “look how God has been with all generations through all the bumps, dips and ditches they have been through, just imagine what God has in store for you.” When you get to them, you have permission to skip over them and say, “look how God has been faithful for all these generations, surely God will be faithful to me also.” Then close your eyes, hold out your arms in praise, and soak in the love of God poured out upon you. A good “Hallelujah, Praise God” would be in order about now.

Bumps, dips and ditches

Wednesday June 6th, Romans 5: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. Life does not always go smooth. There are dips and bumps on the road of life for us all. When you meet someone who possesses that something we call “character,” it is not because the road has gone smooth, it is because they have learned to handle the bumps, and in the process inherently know that there are bumps there for everyone. It should not be the bumps, dips and ditches in life that should put political campaigns in jeopardy, but rather, the seeming lack of them, or the callousness the comes from thinking you can go them alone. In political circles, the so called “self made man or woman” should be a red warning flag with a flashing neon sign.

A New Creation

Tuesday June 5th, Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Justified, made right, put in a right relationship, recreated, born again, all through the work of faith, and not our faith, but the faith of Christ. Through Christ we are a New Creation. Through Christ, God looks upon us once again and cries, “Yes, it is good.” In Christ, we see the goodness of God shinning through. In Christ, we know all the mysteries of Heaven we can know. In Christ, we are given the ability to know we are in Christ. In Christ we have our being.

Holy and running smooth

Monday June 4th, Genesis 1: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. My dad always taught me that the best and cheapest thing you can do for your car is to regularly change the oil. It gives the engine long life, eases the wear and tear on all the parts and helps it to keep running smooth. It does not keep it running indefinitely, but it does keep it running well and long. All of creation, including you and I, need that regular maintenance to keep running smooth and to reduce the wear and tear. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy and life running smooth.

Breath of God

Sunday June 3rd, Genesis 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In the beginning was nothingness, except the word of God, and thus life began. Even there we hear of the Spirit hovering over the waters of chaos. The Spirit, the breath of life itself that comes from God. As God started this little experiment in love brought to life with the breath of God. God said “Yes”, and the relationship between God’s love and all that is, began. Guided each step along the way by the loving, life giving, breath of God. In Buddhists thought, all of life contains a part of all other life. That is a good way to see the work of the Spirit and a calling as to how we are to treat all life.

Opening Litany for Holy Trinity Sunday

For Holy Trinity Sunday, I have dropped the Psalm and Proverbs text for the day and have chosen the first creation story as the opening litany.

In The Beginning, the 1st story of Creation written during the Babylonian captivity to help the people of God envision the new beginning God held out for them as well as to help understand that God, as Creator, is greater than any human power or temptation.

Pastor: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Congregation: And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Pastor: God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Congregation: And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water."

Pastor: So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Congregation: And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.

Pastor: God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

Congregation: Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds."

Pastor: And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Congregation: And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth."

Pastor: And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Congregation: And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."

Pastor: So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

Congregation: And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind."

Pastor: And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Congregation: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Pastor: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

Congregation: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

Pastor: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Congregation: And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Pastor: Welcome to Worship at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church.

Congregation: Where we are Inspired by God’s Love to Praise, Nurture and Serve

5/25/2007

Report Says Iraq Problems Were Expected

May 25, 5:46 PM (ET)
By KATHERINE SHRADER

WASHINGTON (AP) - Intelligence analysts predicted, in secret papers circulated within the government before the Iraq invasion, that al-Qaida would see U.S. military action as an opportunity to increase its operations and that Iran would try to shape a post-Saddam Iraq.

The top analysts in government also said that establishing a stable democracy in Iraq would be a "long, difficult and probably turbulent process."
Democrats said the newly declassified documents, part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released Friday, make clear that the Bush administration was warned about the very challenges it now faces as it tries to stabilize Iraq.

"Sadly, the administration's refusal to heed these dire warnings - and worse, to plan for them - has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price," said Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

for full article, go to: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070525/D8PBLIU00.html

I Vote, Bring Them Home

I just started a new blog. http://www.ivotebringthemhome.blogspot.com/ It has the following information in it. I will not be adding any comments to the blog, I simply want it used for people to email their Senators and Representatives every day with the following simple message. Please be a part and do what you can to spread this information. I have provided a link to the blog to the left for future reference.

Pastor Dan


I vote!
I want you to stop the war and bring them home!

Senate contact info: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

House of Representatives contact info:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/


1.Go to the Senate contact site and choose your state.
2.Bookmark the page with your Senator’s web sites.
3.Go to the House of Representatives contact site and choose your state.
4.Enter your zip code.
5.Bookmark the page with your Representative’s web sites.
6.Copy the simple message from above and email it to your Senators and Representative every day until our solders come home.


Thank You
Pastor Dan

5/23/2007

Faith

What is faith? Faith is being grasped by the power of love. Faith is recognizing that what makes God is infinite mercy, not infinite control; not power but love unending. Faith is recognizing that if at Christmas Jesus became like us, it was so that we might become more like him. We know what that means: watching Jesus heal the sick, empower the poor, and scorn the powerful, we see transparently the power of God at work. Watching Zaccheus climb the tree a crook and coming down a saint, watching Paul set out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and return a fool for Christ, we know that our lives too can become channels for divine mercy to flow out to save the lost and suffering.

Credo by William Sloane Coffin

Day of Pentecost


John 14:8-27

We have seen the Lord
not high in the Heavens above
but right here in our midst
living among us
living within us
and within those who do not know
they are loved
We have seen the Lord
in the eyes of a child
the eyes of a foe
and we are not afraid
for we live in the presence of the Lord
surrounded by the Spirit
filled with the peace of Christ
and called to reach out
to let others know of this love
(Peace)
calling toward the peace of Christ
that is within them
God created and said it was good
as the children of God
We see
good
God
in all that
and in all who
surrounds us
living as the children of God
Knowing
we are never alone
(Peace )

Missing the joy

Saturday June 2nd, John 14: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. The difference between these two statements is that those who love Jesus will keep his word and those who do not love Jesus will not keep his words. We often take the leap and assume that the second group, those who do not love Jesus, are not loved by God and that God does not dwell in them. The difference is not whether they are loved or whether God dwells within them, the difference is whether they are aware of it or not. Those who do not love God may be missing out in the joy and comfort of knowing God is with them, but they are not missing out on God being with them. That is just the rest of us trying to be judgmental.

Magic vending machine

Friday June 1st, John 14: 12"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. I have often heard this as the magic vending machine. We ask, that is ask properly and while attending the right church and believing the right doctrine and voting the right way, and bingo, we get what we want from Jesus. The point is not so much asking for what we want, but asking from deep within a relationship with God. What we find then is that what we ask for is God’s plan all along.

Comfort and Call

Thursday May 31st, John 14: 8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. We can speculate all we want about the nature of God, what it is for us to know of God is what we have seen in Jesus. As humanity matures, we see more and more the wonder and grace of God in the actions of Jesus. It is a comfort for many and a call to all.

5/22/2007

Deam Dreaming

Wednesday May 30th, Acts 2: This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen: "In the Last Days," God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams. In the last days the Spirit would not be confined to the usual. Instead of only the old men, or priests, or designated holy ones having the say of what God is doing, God will move wherever and through whomever God wishes. It has always been that way, it is just that in the last days humanity will finally be mature enough to see it. Most of human history has been efforts to subtly control and stifle the Spirit. It never worked, but we felt in charge trying. God however spends all of human history getting us to build bridges outward. The first step is to look beyond ourselves and see God.

Trying to harness the wind

Tuesday May 29th, Acts 2: When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Try as we might, there is no way to control or predict the work of the spirit. It is as the wind. This is the beginning of the great reversal of Babel, and once again, humanity is not in control, God is. Where is the spirit blowing in your community, nation, workplace or life? What limits do we foolishly try to place on the wind? Who do we foolishly say is outside the community? How do we try to harness the wind? All too often the church has practiced attempts at harnessing the wind instead of celebrating it. When people in conversation say, “I believe in God and all that but………” The “but” they describe is usually the churches attempts to harness the wind. The “I believe in God and all that” part is the work of the spirit.

time to grow up

Monday May 28th, Genesis 11: 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Sitting around the campfire, the child asks, “why do some people talk so we can’t understand them?” The question prompts this story. It is just a story, but at the same time it is a story that gives some insight into humanity. Humanity wasn’t ready to get together and try to solve the worlds problems, Humanity was, as a child, too focused inward on itself. Pentecost sends us out. It reverses Babel. Now if our maturity would just catch up.

New Toy

Sunday May 27th, Genesis 11: 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Give a kid a new toy and they play with it, give an adult a new toy and they try to take over the world. This story is a repeat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity once again tries to take over the god spot. You would think humanity should have matured a bit since then but we all know that our toys have outstripped our ethics. Here is where the church should step in and bring humanity into the conversation about how our toys should help us work for the kingdom, not against it. Alas, with our new military budget that positions our military as the 10th largest economy in the world, a world where thousnads will die today from hunger related causes, I think the body of Christ has abdicated it’s responsibility.

!?!?!?!

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - In a biting rebuke, the White House on Sunday dismissed former President Jimmy Carter as "increasingly irrelevant" after his harsh criticism of President Bush.

A look at this “increasingly irrelevant” former President shows that after leaving office, Carter founded the Carter Center to promote global health, democracy and human rights. He has traveled extensively to monitor international elections, conduct peace negotiations and establish relief efforts. In 2002 he was awarded the distinction of being named a Nobel Peace laureate . He has also been an avid supporter of Habitat for Humanity.

President Bush has lied to get us into an unnecessary war resulting in the deaths of thousands, promoted spying, torture, secret prisons, gutting the Geneva accords, destroyed US image as a leader, etc, etc, etc. He has however finished reading “My Pet Goat” and has made more money than President Carter. I guess I see his point!?!?!?!

5/18/2007

Faith leap

It is terribly important to realize that the leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. For while in many matters it is first we must see, then we will act; in matters of faith it is first we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. One must, in short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty.


I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

Credo by William Sloane Coffin

5/17/2007

5/10/07 letter to congress

Dear Members of Congress,

As Congress works to resolve the differences in the House and Senate version of the FY 2008 budget resolution passed in March, we write now focusing through the lens of faith on several important areas of great need. Representing 20 million followers, we write to urge you to ensure that the federal budget reflects our shared responsibility to the most vulnerable in the United States and abroad.

In February, following the release of the President's FY 2008 Federal Budget, we wrote to the Congress regarding our vision of the federal budget and our belief that the nation's budget must represent a shared vision of justice and compassion for all of God's people, both in our own nation and around the world. In particular we expressed deep concern for cuts to programs that serve the health, education and well-being of millions of people living near or below the poverty line in the United States. We applauded the important investments our country is making in combating deadly poverty and disease abroad.

We are reminded in the Gospel of Luke that "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Luke 12:48). The United States is a nation of great wealth and resources and, indeed, much is expected of us individually, as communities of faith and as a nation. Our denominations continue to do ministry in the areas of our historic Christian calling—working for reconciliation and serving those most vulnerable in our world.

We continue to express profound concern regarding the cost of the war in Iraq and the cost of extending large tax cuts to those to whom much has been given, particularly in view of the deep need to fund efforts aimed at alleviating poverty and disease both at home and abroad.

We are encouraged that Congress responded to the President's budget by passing budget resolutions that make fiscal responsibility a priority, modestly increase domestic funding, and ensure that the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) and the Farm Bill will have the important resources needed to protect struggling American farmers and the health and nutritional needs of the working poor, children and the elderly. In an effort to restore badly needed funds to human needs programs that have recently seen year after year of funding cuts, we urge you to include in the conference report the House's $417.8 billion, the highest-passed discretionary spending figure.

We also appreciate that the Senate unanimously voted to restore $2.2 billion in funding for international-assistance programs that had been cut by the Budget Committee. This funding is critical to our nation's ability to deliver on its promises in the fight against deadly poverty and disease abroad, phenomena that kill one person every three seconds. President Bush, along with leaders of both parties, repeatedly has made it clear that this work is part of our nation's moral identity and deserves to be prioritized even in times of tight fiscal constraints. We strongly urge House-Senate Budget conferees to adopt the Senate passed level of $39.8 billion for international assistance.

Our world continues to live in tumultuous times, and it is clearer than ever that our nation must reclaim its historic destiny as a source of hope and opportunity for its own citizens and for all people around the world. We pray for the Congress and all the leaders of our nation. And we pray for peace and a world restored and reconciled. We urge the Congress to seek peace and pursue it and, as the budget process continues, to embrace a vision of justice and compassion for all of God's children.

Signed by:
The Reverend Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church

The Reverend Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Bishop Beverly Shamana
President of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society

The Reverend John H. Thomas
General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

5/15/2007

7th Sunday of Easter


John 17:20-26

Call us dear Lord
that we may all be one
One in love
One in your name
One in prayer
Pray for us Lord
that we may all be you children
Unique, but one
Whole and part of the whole
Individual persons
each loved
and gathered around your table
One family
Divided through our own efforts
but united in you
Fill us with the love of God
that we
in spite of ourselves
may love
That we
in spite of ourselves
may gather
That we
in spite of ourselves
may pray
That we
in spite of ourselves
and because of your love
may pray
---- gather
--------worship
------------ together
as one
in You
Amen

Oneness!?!

Saturday May 26th, John 17:20-23 The same glory you gave me, I gave them, So they'll be as unified and together as we are— I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless world evidence That you've sent me and loved them In the same way you've loved me. The children of God will be mature in oneness. I think that would mean that until we get that oneness thing down, we are acting rather immature. War is not oneness. Vast economic discrepancies are not oneness. Putting up fences is not oneness. Haves and have nots is not oneness. Oneness is more than saying we are brothers and sisters in Christ, it is acting upon it.

Disagreeing is different than dissing

Friday May 25th, John 17: 20-23 The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. We often confuse being of one heart and mind with being in agreement. If everyone agreed in Heaven then eternity would be a mighty long long time. Disagreeing is different than dissing. Being one in heart and mind is like being in love, wanting the best for the other even if you can’t agree where to go out to eat. It is what makes life, life and love real.

Come, take the Free Gift of the water of life

Thursday May 24th, Revelation 22: 17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. All those dogs and sleazebags outside the Holy City, come, take the Free Gift of the water of life. All those who look down upon the dogs and sleazebags and because of that, find yourselves outside the Holy City, come, take the Free Gift of the water of life. All you church folk who are welcoming to all, but, first they must renounce a part of who they are or have an experience or understand the sacraments or, or, or……… come, take the Free Gift of the water of life. All you religious folk who call God by some other name like Jehovah, or Allah, or Krishna, or YHWH, come, take the Free Gift of the water of life. Get the picture!?!

The Work goes on and on and on

Wednesday May 23rd, Revelation 22: 14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. We hear statements like this and begin to feel at home. Finally God gets it and those dogs and immoral idolaters are, in the end, outside the Holy City, the Kingdom of God on earth. We can breath a sigh of relief, until we realized that there are no closed gates in the city. Perhaps these sinister folks are out there waiting for those inside the city to come and get them and tell them the story until, from their bottom, they too can look up and come into the city. Evangelism goes on in heaven until the last weary soul is brought into the Holy City rejoicing, and all the city rejoicing with them.

Grace given, Grace recieved

Tuesday May 22nd, Acts 16: 32-34 They went on to spell out in detail the story of the Master—the entire family got in on this part. They never did get to bed that night. The jailer made them feel at home, dressed their wounds, and then—he couldn't wait till morning!—was baptized, he and everyone in his family. There in his home, he had food set out for a festive meal. It was a night to remember: He and his entire family had put their trust in God; everyone in the house was in on the celebration. Grace given, Grace received. God’s view of the of the creation God called good. Sometimes we work so hard in the presentation of the message that we forget that the power is in the message itself. When everyone comes once a week to hear the pastor give the message, no matter how good the message is, it is never as good as one person in a time of need hearing it from one person who happens to be there. Pastors should spend more time training others to respond to those moments than on eloquently telling the story again themselves.

Bottoms up!!

Monday May 21st, Acts 16: 29-31 The jailer got a torch and ran inside. Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Paul and Silas. He led them out of the jail and asked, "Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?" They said, "Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to live—and everyone in your house included!" The jailer didn’t take a membership class, his children weren’t baptized or instructed in the meanings of the words of institution or the office of the keys. All he was, was some poor guy whose life as he had known it, had come to an end. He could fall on his sword or he could “really live.” He chose the latter. Often it is not until we reach bottom that we can see up. His only qualification for membership in the church was that he had nowhere else to go. Would that I had more in my congregation like that!!!!

To play Chuch or to be church, that is the question

Sunday May 20th, Acts 16: 16-18 One day, on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started following Paul around, calling everyone's attention to us by yelling out, "These men are working for the Most High God. They're laying out the road of salvation for you!" She did this for a number of days until Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed her, "Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!" And it was gone, just like that. Let me see, was she baptized before she started yelling that these men worked for the Most High God? Was she born again first? Did she become a member first? Is this one of the gifts of the spirit? All she was, was someone in need. Through the love of Christ, Paul responded and she was set free, much to the irritation of those who thought they could own her. That is our calling also. To set free those who are bound, by what ever it is that binds them. Sometimes we get too busy playing church to be the church.

The cost of the Iraq War

I have added a new counter on the left column. It is a counter of the cost of the Iraq war. If you click on the site you will be able to see the effect on your state and you can compare the cost to such things as childrens health, pre-school, housing and college education.

5/10/2007

Valuable

We don't have to be "successful," only valuable. We don't have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.

Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

CROSS OF IRON

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

From the Chance for Peace address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953. (Regarded as one of the finest speeches of Eisenhower's presidency.)

The proposed military budget for the U.S, military is $700 billion. If passed, that would make it the 10th largest economy in the world.

5/09/2007

God's love creates value

Of God's love we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.


Because our value is a gift, we don't have to prove ourselves, only to express ourselves, and what a world of difference there is between proving ourslelves and expressing ourselves.

Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

One in sin

And if we are not yet one in love at least we are one in sin, which is no mean bond because iti precludes the possibility of separation through judgment.

Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

5/08/2007

Love Ethic

Make love your aim, not biblical inerrancy, nor purity nor obedience to holiness codes. Make love your aim, for

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels" - musicians, poets, preachers, you are being addressed;

"and though I ....understand all mysteries, and all knowledge" - Professors, your turn,

"and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor" - radicals take note;

"and though I give my body to be burned" - the very stuff of heroism;

"and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1-3 KJV)

I doubt if in any other scriptures of all the world there is a more radical statement of ethics. If we fail in love, we fail in all things else.

Credo, William Sloane Coffin

5/07/2007

St. Matthias, Apostle


Luke 6:12-16

Chosen
among the many
twelve who would be there in a special way
twelve
who would help to lead the world
from nowhere
from powerlessness
help to lead the world
with it’s great armies
and nations
and people
who live separate lives
lives
in pain
lives
in need
of the one who chose twelve
just twelve
with no particular greatness
except
being chosen by Christ
who brought salvation
by choosing
you and me!

Philip & James, Apostles


John 14:8-14

We don’t know where you are going
we don’t have a handle on what is happening
we don’t feel in control
just show me the one who has sent you
the one we have worshiped for so long
Show me
that I may believe
that which I have already said
I believe
Show me that I may no longer be nagged by doubts
Show me
---- (I am the way)
---- (and I will be with you)
---- (for I am going)
---- (to be with you in a special way)
Help me to keep the ways
I have learned
from my ancestors
who have lived so long
with the special relationship given
by God
---- (I am the way)
Show us that we may believe in you
Show us
that our human side may be satisfied
Show us
that we may have an edge
over
those who have not been shown
---- (I am the way)
---- (and I will be)
---- (with all people)
---- (in love)

6th Sunday of Easter


John 14:23-29

She ran in the door smiling
covered with mud
in little splotches here and there
with a smile of love
plastered amid the streaks of dirt
just smiling
and that was enough
it said love
with no agendas
---- strings
-------- ifs
it just said love
and that was enough for the whole world
in that moment
just love
Christ’s Spirit is here
to guide us
---- love
to gently nudge this way and that
---- love
so that as we stand before God
amid our smudged and streaked hands
and faces
the God and Creator of all
sees only the smile
---- love
of Christ

Peace as the Holy Spirit Gives

Saturday May 19th, John 14: 25 I have told you these things while I am still with you. 26 But the Holy Spirit will come and help] you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you. 27 I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn't like the peace that this world can give. When I was young and lived at home, my father was an idiot. When I got out on my own and grew in years, it is amazing how much smarter my father got. Many have expressed the opinion that if Jesus were here today, and then they usually paint some rosy picture of how they would be following him around and listening at his feet. I think we would just kill him again. The Spirit leads us not into the knowledge of what Jesus would do, but rather into the peace of knowing Christ is with us, and then calls us to action. It is not a peace for us alone, but for all of creation. It is living, knowing that Christ is not only in us, but also in them, and acting accordingly.

Life's short, live in the love

Friday May 18th, John 14: 23 Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. 24 But anyone who doesn't love me, won't obey me. What they have heard me say doesn't really come from me, but from the Father who sent me. What I find interesting about this passage is that the ones who love and obey God, God will come and live in them. For those who don’t love God, the result is that they won’t, not just don’t, but won’t obey God. It doesn’t say anything about God not continually coming to them and working with them to learn to love God. It also doesn’t say anything about the children of God not loving them. The only difference is that in the mean time, they don’t get the joy of knowing God is already with them. Life’s short, live in the knowledge of God’s love.

Listen, listen God is calling

Thursday May 17th, Acts 16: 13-14 On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart—and she believed! When Paul gets way beyond those boundaries, what does he find but a community and leaders already waiting for him. Not only had God prepared Lydia for learning a new thing, God had also prepared Paul for learning a new thing about the kingdom of God. The next time you feel you are being brave and stepping out, picture in your mind a young child taking their first steps. It is exciting and scary for the one taking the steps, but there is always someone there calling and encouraging them. So it is with God and us. Listen, listen God is calling.

What are you steaped in?

Wednesday May 16th, Acts 16: 9-10 That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans. Dreams can lead us in many different ways, some good and some not so good. The difference often comes about by what it is we steap our life in. When we live our lives in prayer, we live our lives steaped in the God connection. For Paul, God spoke to him and moved the gospel once again beyond a pre-conceived boundary. Paul was already operating beyond the boundary of the church by ministering to the Gentiles. God’s boundaries are always far beyond what we consider acceptable, and when and if we get there, we find that God is already there waiting for us. What boundaries does the church need to cross today in order to go where God is waiting for us? What boundaries do you need to cross?

Idyllic

Tuesday May 15th, Revelation 22: The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. Darkness can be a time of chaos. In the vision of God’s kingdom on earth, there is no chaos. There is only wholeness, health, and healing for those in need. It’s idyllic I know, and not a place we can ever obtain in our part of the kingdom. We can however get a whole lot closer than we are now. How we do that starts in our hearts and moves outward. Standing in the light of Christ in the first place helps also.

Honest diagnosis first

Monday May 14th, Revelation 22: On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. God’s vision for this place called earth is one of wholeness and healing. In the beginning was one tree of life, now there are trees for every tribe and nation and the leaves are for the healing of the nations. From what do we need healing? One of the first tasks in healing is diagnosis. Perhaps what the church should be about is diagnosis and healing rather than justification and self preservation. We are called into a conversation as to what would be the most healing for all of humanity, especially the least, lost and lonely.

Bookend visions

Sunday May 13th, Revelation 22: 1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. In the beginning (Gen. 2) we have the river flowing from Eden and watering the tree of life, in the end, we have the river of life flowing from the throne of God and down the middle of the Holy City and nurturing all of humanity. Bookend visions of God providing life. In the middle is the story of humanity nurturing that life in line with the vision God has given us. God’s part of the vision is majestic, ours is a little less majestic. God’s part of the vision gives us a glimpse into what our part should be like. While we in the church are so busy justifying war, creating and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction, denying people who love each other from marrying and them condemning them for not living chaste lives, fighting to ban abortion because it brings death while at the same time fighting to maintain everyone’s right to own and carry a weapon and states rights to condemn people to death, God calls us to the vision of the river of life nurturing all of humanity. For God’s sake, let us return to the vision and quite all this nonsense.

Amo Ergo Sum

Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living. Descartes too was mistaken; "Cogito Ergo Sum" - "I think therefore I am"? Nonsense. "Amo ergo sum" - "I love therefore I am." Or, as with unconscious eloquence St. Paul wrote, "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

I believe that. I believe it is better not to live than not to love.

Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

5/02/2007

Web Radio

Well our web radio has been up and working without crashing for several weeks now. Give it a try and let me know what you think. It works best with Musicmatch Jukebox, Real player, or iTunes.

Try Christ Our Savior Lutheran Web Radio

What happened to the common good?

From the Anchorage Daily News

ELSTUN LAUESEN
COMMENT

(Published: May 2, 2007)

Soren Kierkegaard and Jonas Salk: one was a man of faith; the other was a man of science. Both cared deeply about the relationship of the individual to society. Both influenced my intellectual growth. Lately I wonder what these old teachers might think of our state of affairs in Alaska.

Salk initially got my attention through the point of a needle as part of a mass polio inoculation when I was in fourth grade at Denali School in Fairbanks. Later, the inventor of the Salk vaccine got my attention with a metaphorical needle when I was a young man.

In 1973, a remarkable gathering of thinkers was convened by Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. The event was carried by PBS. I was lucky enough to be watching. Jonas Salk was there. Toward the end, Dr. Salk said something that I will never forget (I paraphrase): The human condition arises from our own behavior. We are responsible for this world. We will never cure cancer in man until we cure the cancer of man.

As for Kierkegaard, I fell for him in college. His essay "Sickness Unto Death" grabbed my attention. I am Danish on my father's side so there was an appeal in walking around campus carrying a book with a cool title written by a Dane. The 19th-century philosopher-theologian observes that we are all in despair, and the only way out is to take responsibility for our lives. Kierkegaard describes moral self-reliance in terms of pursuing an individual relationship with God. Kierkegaard was also an outspoken critic of the politicization of Christendom in his time, and he was deeply troubled by the surrender of individuality to the crowd. Conformity, particularly unthinking and uncritical acceptance of institutional religion, was tantamount to sin.

What would Kierkegaard say about the pious demagoguery over the issue of domestic partnership health care? Why did we choose to waste a million dollars on an advisory vote while 4,000 homeless children struggle to survive in Alaska's largest city, he would ask. I can almost hear Kierkegaard uttering: A fool with a cross is no less a fool.

What about politics of the pulpit awash in worldly power and corruption? Kierkegaard would regard this as the worst kind of moral debasement of Christianity. He would remind us of Christ's admonition to his apostles: Beware of the false prophets who come in My name and deceive many.

Moral self-reliance and a personal relationship with God do not require a brand or a bully to assert meaning into worldly affairs. The opposite is true: The mark of true faith is when one keeps counsel with one's Creator in private, not, like the hypocrite, by making a spectacle of it -- Christ tells us as much in His Sermon on the Mount. James tells us it is not by faith alone but by our acts that we will be judged.

Alaskans live in the wealthiest state (per capita) in the wealthiest nation on Earth, yet we rank among the worst in care for our children and in the rates of domestic violence and suicide and many other sad social indicators.

In the face of this shameful state of our community, certain politicians continue to talk piously of their commitment to "Life" and of devotion to "Family Values." Ideologues who don't believe that government works get themselves elected and set out to prove that they are right. Millions of dollars are spent on a social services system designed by conservatives to fail while our state and local governments become mired in niggling and bickering as they seek to direct our public treasury to one pet project or another.

Perhaps Dr. Salk would say that these institutional failures are in danger of metastasizing to the vitals of the tolerant and progressive democracy born at statehood.

Alaska's future will not be assured by a gas line or an open-pit mine or a bridge across the Inlet. Our future depends on leadership with the intellectual and moral capacity to build public institutions that work.

That is the cure for Alaska's sickness unto death.

Elstun Lauesen is a rural development specialist. He lives in Anchorage.

Administration Pulls Back on Surveillance Agreement

Published: May 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, May 1 — Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.

As a result of the January agreement, the administration said that the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for the wiretapping of American citizens and others inside the United States.

But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants.

Full story found in the New York Times

5/01/2007

Mothers In Arms

As we prepare for Mother’s day, ponder the following:
Mothers In Arms

New York Times, May 10, 1992
By Stephanie Coontz

Hilo, Hawaii -- Criticism of the corruption of Mothers Day has become as much a cliché as the holiday itself. Most people believe that Mother's Day started out as a private celebration of women's family roles and relations. We took Mom breakfast in bed to thank her for all the meals she made us. We picked her a bouquet of flowers to symbolize her personal, unpaid services. We tried to fix in our memory those precious moments of her knitting sweaters or sitting at our bedside, all the while focusing on her devotion to her family and ignoring her broader social ties, interests and political concerns.

Today, many complain, the personal element in this celebration has been lost. Mother's Day is just another occasion to make money. It is the busiest day of the year for restaurants, and the week that precedes it is the single-best for florists. The real meaning of Mother's Day is gone.

Such lamentation about the holiday's degradation reflect a misunderstanding of its history. It was the education of Mother's Day to sentimentalism and private family relations that made it so vulnerable to commercial exploitation.
The 19th century forerunners of our modern holiday were called mothers' days, not Mother's Day. The plural is significant: They celebrated the extension of women's moral concerns beyond the home. They commemorated mothers' civic roles and services to the nation, not their private roles and personal services to the family. The women who organized the first mothers' days believed motherhood was a political force that should be mobilized on behalf of the entire community, not merely an expression of a fundamental instinct that led them to lavish all their time and attention on their children.

The earliest call for a mothers' day came from Anna Reeves Jarvis, a community activist, who in 1858 organized Mothers' Work Days in West Virginia to improve sanitation in Appalachian communities. During the Civil War, the women she mobilized cared for the wounded on both sides and, after the war's end, arranged meetings to persuade the men to lay aside their enmities.

The holiday's other precursor began in Boston in 1872, when Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," proposed an annual Mothers' Day for Peace. This was celebrated on June 2 in most Northeastern cities for the next 30 years.

The message that Mrs. Howe's mothers sent to the Government was a far cry from today's syrupy platitudes: "Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage... Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

The connection of motherhood to movements for peace and social justice made particular sense in the 19th century. Despite its repressiveness, the Victorian image of motherhood gave women moral responsibility beyond the household, a duty that for many translated easily into social activism. Women played a leading role in anti-slavery agitation, temperance movements, consumer protection drives and the construction of America's social welfare system. They believed their role as mothers made them especially suited for political and social activities.

After the turn of the century, however, women's expanding political and economic activities beyond the home collided with the growth of a consumer economy. While women won important reforms in the public sphere, their maternal and moral responsibilities were privatized and linked to their role as "purchasing agent" for the family. Sentimentalization of motherhood seemed to go hand in hand with its trivialization.

This was the context in which Anna Jarvis's daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, began a letter-writing campaign to honor her own mother by getting a special day set aside for all mothers. Politicians and businessmen who had opposed l9th century women's reforms embraced an individualistic Mother's Day that could be, as Florists' Review, the industry's trade magazine, put it, "exploited."
The adoption of Mother's Day by Congress on May 8, 1914, represented a reversal of everything the 19th century mothers' days had stood for. Speeches proclaiming the occasion repudiated women's social and political roles, except to emphasize the importance of mothers in teaching their children to obey the state. One antisuffrage leader inverted the original intent of mothers' day entirely when she asked rhetorically: If a woman becomes "a mother to the Municipality, who is going to mother us?"

Its bond with social reform snapped, Mother's Day drifted into the orbit of the marketing industry. Outraged when florist "profiteers" began selling carnations for $1, the younger Anna Jarvis set about combating the commercialization of the day she had worked so hard to establish. Within a few years; however, Florists' Review was able to announce that "Miss Jarvis was completely squelched." For her part, Anna Jarvis became more and more obsessed with exposing those who would undermine Mother's Day with their greed." She was eventually committed to a sanitarium, where she died in 1948, just before the real takeoff of Mother's Day commercialization in the 1950's.

Women in the 1990's have even more reason than Anna Jarvis to resent those who celebrate Mother's Day by offering store-bought sentiments as a substitute for supporting the basic needs of mother's and children. The Government devotes a smaller proportion of its resources to financing children's education than any other major democracy. A majority of American mothers now work for pay, but they still face a second shift at home and lack adequate parental leave policies or childcare facilities. Poor American mothers, have lower incomes relative to the rest of the population, less assistance with job placement and childcare and less medical coverage than in any other advanced industrial nation.

But this disrespect for mothers will not be solved by forgoing the Mother's Day all-you-can-eat buffets and retreating even further into the nuclear family. Such a move would only revive the most stultifying, repressive aspects of 19th century domesticity while jettisoning the elements that made it bearable: motherhood's connection to larger social and political ideals of peace and justice.

Mother's Day belongs neither in the shopping mall nor the kitchen, but in the streets and community action groups where it originated.

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