6/25/2007

Opening Litany for the 1st

Psalm 77:1-20 abridged and Anger by Fredrick Buechner

Pastor: I pray to you, Lord God, and I beg you to listen. In days filled with trouble, I search for you. And at night I tirelessly lift my hands in prayer, refusing comfort.

Congregation: I think of times gone by, of those years long ago. Each night my mind is flooded with questions: "Have you rejected me forever? Won't you be kind again? Is this the end of your love and your promises? Have you forgotten how to have pity? Do you refuse to show mercy because of your anger?"

Pastor: Then I said, "God Most High, what hurts me most is that you no longer help us with your mighty arm."

Congregation: Everything you do is right, and no other god compares with you. You alone work miracles, and you have let nations see your mighty power.

Pastor: The ocean looked at you, God, and it trembled deep down with fear. Water flowed from the clouds. Thunder was heard above as your arrows of lightning flashed about..

Congregation: You walked through the water of the mighty sea, but your footprints were never seen. You guided your people like a flock of sheep as you destroyed the chariot and rider who pursued them.

Pastor: I too want to see you anger visited upon my enemies, those who offend and affront my thinking and my way of life. I too want to see that righteous anger welling up inside you as it wells up inside of me.

Congregation: Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack you lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back – in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
Buechner, “Wishful Thinking”

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

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

Prayer of the Day for the 1st

Dear Lord, when we are compelled to respond in anger, indignation or righteousness, help us to see in the face of the one who upsets us, your face. Walk with us this day and help us to be builders of the Kingdom rather than destroyers of one another. Help us to look at all of creation, everywhere, and proclaim along with your creative Spirit, It Is Good. Amen.

Prayer of Blessing

We thank you for all you have given us in this life. Please bless these gifts we pray and help us to use them for the building of your gracious Kingdom on this earth and in this community. Use our lives also as an offering to you as we dedicate our selves to service as the children of God. Amen.

Our foibles first and foremost

Saturday July 7th, Luke 9: 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." The Call to follow God is a call to love one another. The call to love one another is a call to put God first in our lives. That sounds good on paper, but don’t ever kid yourself that it is easy. It takes a lifetime, day after day, one day at a time. And it always requires a good natured look at our own foibles first and foremost.

it's all forgein land

Friday July 6th, Luke 9: 51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. When Jesus got to Jerusalem, he was eventually rejected there also. The Gospel is a threat to all who want to draw lines in the sand, and that is some of us all the time and all of us some of the time. As the children of God, we are still sent into foreign territories to get things ready for the coming of Christ. Sometimes these foreign lands are the neighborhood grocery, the athletic club, half way around the world, and sometimes even our own families and congregations. Every time our anger calls us to call down God’s wrath on someone, it is good to remember that none of us escape the judgment in total. Often the call for God’s wrath says more about who we are than it does about the other.

Your an original, and so are they

Thursday July 5th, Galatians 5: 25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. In the beginning God created all that is and called it good. The sin of humanity is that we are always trying to rend asunder what God has joined together. When we compare ourselves to others as if we are better, we are in essence saying that we are a better judge of “goodness” than God. When we pursue policies that create second class citizens of the world, we are in essence saying that our view of God is “second class.” In the end, we are saying more about ourselves than the other. God doesn’t do border fences, whether they be in Berlin, Jerusalem or the southern US. Perhaps if we say one another as an original creation of God, and treated one another as an original creation of God, we wouldn’t feel the need for the fences.

Let it flow through,

Wednesday July 4th, Galatians 5: 19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. Paul, it sounds so bad when you put it that way. All I was trying to do was watch out for old number one. Or perhaps all I was trying to do was insert myself as number one instead of holding you in my heart as number one. Here is the way it goes, love comes from God, it flows through our hearts and into the world around us. If we put ourselves as number one, all that flows out is what is in our heart naturally, and that is not always so good.

Anger

Tuesday July 3rd, Galatians 5: 14 For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? The book, “Wishful Thinking” by Fredrick Buechner has been stolen from me more than any other book. To date, I have purchased 27 copies and have one in my library. I call that an excellent endorsement of the book. From that book I will share with you the definition of “Anger.” Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack you lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back – in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

Balance

Monday July 2nd, Galatians 5: 13 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For a young child, learning to ride a bike is an exhilarating sense of freedom. One of the essentials for learning to ride a bike is balance. You maintain that balance by looking ahead, where you are going. The minute you look down, look at yourself, you loose your balance and fall. I have the scars to prove it. Our exhilarating freedom in Christ also requires balance, and that balance comes from looking ahead to where Christ is leading us. The minute we look down, focus on our situation, or our needs, or our wants, or our desires, or our pity party, or our, our, our, we loose our balance and fall. And I also have the scars to prove that.

Tell me about this God you don't believe in

Sunday July 1, Galatians 5: 1&2 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. The question for Paul and for the Galatians was whether someone “had” to be circumcised in order to be a Christian. That may not seem like much of an issue today. What is at issue today is other litmus test to be a true Christian. Keep in mind that any litmus test is always for the other. Christ made you free so that you could being that freedom to others. Christ did not make you free so that you could impose a new slavery on someone else, and in the process yourself. But we do it all the time. Just ask your friends who don’t go to church why they don’t go to church, or if they say they don’t believe in God, ask them to tell you about that God they don’t believe in. You will get a vast array of assumptions, true or not, about the rules and slaveries of the Christian walk. In the face of this, our calling is to preach salvation by Grace.

6/18/2007

Opening Litany for the 24th

Psalm 42 and Fredrick Buechner

Pastor: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.

Congregation: My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while friends question all day long saying, "Where is your God?"

Pastor: These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

Congregation: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise the Lord, my Savior and my God.

Pastor: My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

Congregation: By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.

Pastor: I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

Congregation: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise the Lord, my Savior and my God.

Pastor: Turn your attentions, your desires, your longings to the still small voice of God

Congregation: God acts in history and in your and my brief histories not as the puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings but rather as the great director who no matter what role fate casts us in conveys to us somehow from the wings, if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open and sometimes even if we don’t, how we can play those roles in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drama of things including our own small but crucial parts in it.
(Fredrick Buechner, “Telling Secrets” pg.32)

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

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

Offertory prayer for the 24th

Offertory Prayer
We thank you O Lord for all the many gifts with which you have showered our lives. We ask that you would continue to be a blessing in the life of this congregation as we go about the mission of brining your message of love and grace to the world. Please bless these gifts and help us to live generously, knowing we are surrounded by your love. Amen

Prayer of the Day for the 24th

Prayer of the Day
Dear Lord, we thank you that you are way out in front of us, setting the stage and getting things ready for what you have planned next. Help us to keep our eyes on your will and your calling. Help us to turn our attention from our situations in life to your plan for our lives. Guide us this day and every day we pray. Amen!

Natural Evangelism

Saturday June 30th, Luke 8: 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. After all the training and seminars we go to that help us design our evangelism programs, what it really takes is the passion of lives changed. Perhaps our passion should be on changing lives and letting evangelism happen naturally.

Don't mess with the bottom line

Friday June 29th, Luke 8: 34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. Demons dispatched, lives set right, salvation offered, all good god stuff, but damn it Jesus, don’t mess with the economic bottom line or we will run you out of town again. Things haven’t changed much.

That saved a wretch like me

Thursday June 28th, Luke 8: 26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? The disciples didn’t get it, the religious leaders didn’t get it, even John the Baptists sent a message asking if Jesus was the one or if he should wait for another, it was the poor naked, demon-possessed man in the foreign land that got that Jesus was the Son of the Most High. Sometimes you wonder if Jesus came back if the church would get it, or if it would be some wretch in Baghdad, Beijing or Mogadishu. Perhaps we should start seeing these wretches as the children of God now. It would be a step toward that maturity Paul talks about in Galatians.

Elect Grownups

Wednesday June 27th, Galatians 3: 25-27 But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise. 28-29 In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. If our baptism dresses us in an adult faith, most of us spend a lot of time getting naked. If this sign of maturity is to recognize there can be no divisions, humanity in general spends a lot of time and energy getting naked. Wars, vast income differentiations, health insurance discrepancies, insane increases in CEO pay while the debate for a living wage on the bottom goes on and on, “bring ‘em on” attitudes, all these and more are a sign of immaturity. Sure would be nice to elect some grownups.

Law and Gospel

Tuesday June 26th, Galatians 3: 23-24 Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for. When our children are young, we need to deal with them with lots of love and limits, which is another way of saying the law. Don’t touch the stove, Don’t play in the street, Don’t hit, and sometimes there is a time out or some toys taken away. As they grow in years, they learn to make their own good decisions (hopefully). Part of the process of learning to make good decisions is making some bad decisions. Until we as individuals, we as cultures, and humanity in general, reaches the state of maturity where we can freely respond in faith to the living God, there are always some of those laws to keep us in line. It is an ongoing process. One sure way to know you have not reached maturity is to think you have reached maturity. In the mean time, we live in the tension between Law and Gospel.

Who's side are you on?

Monday June 25th, 1 Kings 19: 11-12 Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper. Again with the narcissistic theology, we want a BIG god on our side, one that is powerful, mighty, awesome and when it is our desire, mean. Those views of god are all about me. When we turn from self-interests to God-interests, we begin to understand that God comes in a still small voice and quiet whisper. Then we have to stop talking and start listening. Then we begin to understand that it is not about god being on our side, it is about us being on God’s side.

Narcissistic Pity Party

Sunday June 24th, 1 Kings 19: Jezebel immediately sent a messenger to Elijah with her threat: "The gods will get you for this and I'll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you'll be as dead as any one of those prophets." 3-5 When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far in the south of Judah. He left his young servant there and then went on into the desert another day's journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all—to just die: "Enough of this, God! Take my life—I'm ready to join my ancestors in the grave!" Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. After wiping out all the priest of Baal with the help of God, now Elijah is afraid of Jezebel. We each have our tipping point, and Elijah had met his. How often do we cower from the tasks ahead and never look back to gain strength from all the trouble God has lead us through. We, like Elijah can turn on a dime and think this life is all about “me.” It is that narcissistic theology that closes our eyes to the grace of God. When we focus on “me” there is a lot in this world that seems impossible. When we focus on God, the world of possibility changes. After his little pity party, Elijah too was asked to turn to see the face of God.

6/14/2007

Web Radio

We are now up and running again on the Web Radio. Thank you all for your patience. Computers Aghhhhhhhh!

Click on the link to the left in my links section and listen to Music, Comentary, Coffin, Buechner and Luke.

Pastor Dan

6/13/2007

Offertory prayer for the 17th

Help us to live as gracious people O Lord, content with fulfilling needs more than wants. We bring before you this day an offering of thankfulness born from a heart of thankfulness for all we have. Please bless these gifts we pray and help us to use them wisely, along with the many talents in this congregation, to bring your word of grace and justice to this world. Amen!!

Opening Prayer for the 17th

Dear Lord, help us to see the face of the innocent victims in this world. When power seems so attractive, help us to see who the victims of that power will be. When fortunes seem so attractive, help us to see the victims of that wealth. When comfort seems so attractive, help us to see those who are not comfortable. Help us to be ever aware of all the children of God in this world and give us the strength and wisdom to work toward a united family of God. Amen

6/12/2007

What America Owes its 'Illegals' from "The Nation"

by BARBARA EHRENREICH

Rush Limbaugh has been expecting liberals to start "whining" about the $5000 fine undocumented immigrants will have to pay to gain citizenship under the new immigration bill, but most liberals have been too busy chortling about the immigration-induced split in the GOP to make their own case against the bill. So let a mighty whine rise over the land: Undocumented workers shouldn't be fined; they should get a hefty bonus!

All right, they committed a "crime"--the international equivalent of breaking and entry. But breaking and entry is usually a prelude to a much worse crime, like robbery or rape. What have the immigrants been doing once they get into the US? Taking up time on the elliptical trainers in our health clubs? Getting ahead of us on the wait-lists for elite private nursery schools?

In case you don't know what immigrants do in this country, the Latinos have a word for it--trabajo. They've been mowing the lawns, cleaning the offices, hammering the nails and picking the tomatoes, not to mention all that dish-washing, diaper-changing, meat-packing and poultry-plucking.

The punitive rage directed at illegal immigrants grows out of a larger blindness to the manual labor that makes our lives possible: The touching belief, in the class occupied by Rush Limbaugh among many others, that offices clean themselves at night and salad greens spring straight from the soil onto one's plate.

Native-born workers share in this invisibility, but it's far worse in the case of immigrant workers, who are often, for all practical purposes, nameless. In the recent book There's No José Here: Following the Lives of Mexican Immigrants, Gabriel Thompson cites a construction company manager who says things like, "I've got to get myself a couple of Josés for this job if we're going to have that roof patched up by Saturday." Forget the Juans, Diegos, and Eduardos - they're all interchangeable "Josés."

Hence no doubt the ease with which some prominent immigrant-bashers forget their own personal reliance on immigrant labor, like Nevada's Governor Jim Gibbons, who, it turns out, once employed an undocumented nanny. And as the Boston Globe revealed late last year, Mitt Romney's lawn in suburban Boston was maintained by illegal immigrants from Guatemala.

The only question is how much we owe our undocumented immigrant workers. First, those who do not remain to enjoy the benefits of old age in America will have to be reimbursed for their contributions to Medicare and Social Security, and here I quote the website of the San Diego ACLU:

Undocumented immigrants annually pay an estimated $7 billion more than they take out into Social Security, and $1.5 billion more into Medicare.... A study by the National Academy of Sciences also found that tax payments generated by immigrants outweighed any costs associated with services used by immigrants.

Second, someone is going to have to calculate what is owed to "illegals" for wages withheld by unscrupulous employers: The homeowner who tells his or her domestic worker that the wage is actually several hundred dollars a month less than she had been promised, and that the homeowner will be "holding" it for her. Or the landscaping service that stiffs its undocumented workers for their labor. Who's the "illegal" here?

Third, there's the massive compensation owed to undocumented immigrants for preventable injuries on the job. In her book Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights, Jennifer Gordon reports such gruesome cases as a Honduran who died from inhaling paint while sanding yachts in Long Island and a Guatemalan worker whose boss intentionally burned him with hot pans of oil for not washing dishes fast enough. "Death rates for Latino workers," Gordon reports, "have risen over the past decade even as workplace fatality rates for non-Latinos have fallen."

When our debt to America's undocumented workers is eventually tallied, I'm confident that it will be well in excess of the $5000 fine the immigration bill proposes. There is still the issue of the original "crime." If someone breaks into my property for the purpose of trashing and looting, I would be hell-bent on restitution. But if they break in for the purpose of cleaning it--scrubbing the bathroom, mowing the lawn--then, in my way of thinking anyway, the debt goes in the other direction.

3rd Sunday after Pentecost


Luke 7:36-8:3

I came there every Sunday
I was faithful
singing the hymns and praying the prayers
being swept up in all
the joy
---- love
-------- friendship
------------ community
----in that place
feeling
knowing in my heart
the love of Christ (Your)
through the caring of others
gathered in conversation and coffee

sometimes on the way home
I would wonder
I would read the paper
and wonder
hear the news
and wonder (Sins)
if
there was a God of love
A Christ

one day I came face to face with
who I was
face to face with the one I call me
I dropped to my knees
and cried
at my shallow life
at the pain I had given
and had been given
and I cried Lord!
---- (Are Forgiven)
Save me.
---- I need you
and through the prayerful tears came relief
and the God of Love
and I felt
---- (Go In)
peace (Peace)

Web Radio

We are down again on the Web radio. Some sort of bug or something. I will let you know when we are up and running.

Wonderful Wedding

Sorry if my posts are late this week. My step daughter got married on Sat. Wonderful woman, Wonderful man, Wonderful wedding, Wonderful blessing, and I am wiped out!

Two peas in a pod

Saturday June 23rd, Luke 7: 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 48 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." She was not any greater sinner than he was. He was not any more righteous than she was. The only difference between the two was that she was aware of her sin and therefore open to forgiveness. He, not so much. How do we try to keep the grace of God at bay?

Raw nerve

Friday June 22nd, Luke 7: 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner." If the Pharisee knew what kind of Prophet Jesus was, he would know who was touching him, and why that nerve was so raw. Jesus did know what kind of woman she was, one with a hurting heart that longed for forgiveness. Jesus knew what kind of man the Pharisee was, a good man who thought he was good enough and wanted to impress his friends with his goodness by inviting Jesus over for dinner, showing just how open and liberal he was. It would help him in his status. Liberal or conservative, we are both capable of being cold hearted and calculating. Liberal or conservative, we are both saved by the grace of God.

Let your hair down grace

Thursday June 21st, Luke 7: 36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When we know we are sinners, we tend to approach from behind. We are aware of our sin and we can’t believe the grace that comes with forgiveness. It is when we have the greater sin, that of not being aware of our sin, that we approach from the front, arrogant and full of self. The woman’s response was an intimate pouring out of herself in thankfulness that comes from encountering unbelievable grace. This extravagant response was an embarrassment to the good upstanding folk who were aware they were good upstanding folk. Perhaps they too would be open to God’s amazing grace if they took an honest look inside. Perhaps then, they too could let there hair down and truly respond to that grace with extravagant love of their own.

Grace means

Wednesday June 20th, Galatians 2: 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" We all set aside the grace of God, it is the human thing to do. To be saved by grace is to not be in control. To be saved by grace is to accept that everyone else on this planet can be, and most likely is, saved by grace also. To be saved by grace means that any justification for killing, whether it be the death penalty or war, is saying that some people created in God’s image and loved by God, we deem not worthy to live, and therefore we are in charge and God is not. To be saved by grace is to constantly look inward and see the ways we try to bottleneck that grace going out to others, and knowing that in spite of that, we are saved by grace. To be saved by grace means knowing that we have been, are and always will be loved by the creator to who created all that is and pronounced it good.

Grace is being God absorbed

Tuesday June 19th, Galatians 2: 15 "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. The natural tendency for humanity is to move away from grace and back into the law. It is a more comfortable state for us because we get the feeling we are in charge. It manifest itself in several ways, here are a few. We want to be saved by grace, but then we see others and we are not so sure about them. Or we want to be saved by grace and we know we are, because after all it is easy, after all we are not that bad as far as sinners go. Or we want to be saved by grace, but we are soooooo bad that there is no way God could do that and besides, if we didn’t have this bad thing we were sooo guilty feeling about then we would lose our identity. All are self-absorbed. Grace is being God absorbed.

Tail of a mouse

Monday June 18th, 1 Kings 21: 7 Jezebel his wife said, "Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." 8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him. 9 In those letters she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death." Who we surround ourselves with can sometimes be as important as who we are as a person. Ahab did not send Jezebel, nor did he stop her, nor did he create an atmosphere where that was the sort of thing that was not done. How often does our opportunities to do something good and right slip to the wayside all because we withdraw and say or do nothing. What happens in these situations is that the little guy always gets that shaft and more powerful always thinks justice and fairness prevailed. Desmond Tutu said, “If an elephant has it’s foot on the tail of a mouse and you say you are neutral in that situation, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” In what ways do we use neutrality as a cover for letting evil win?

Poor me

Sunday June 17th, 1 Kings 21: 1 Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth." 3 But Naboth replied, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." 4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. Sometimes we get the strange notion that all we have, power, possessions, prestige are because of the sweat of our brow and therefore “We Deserve It” lies at the basis of what we do and think. God has given each of us many gifts and opportunities to use for the work of the Kingdom and our calling is to use them wisely, knowing that everything we have is a gift from God. Ahab forgot that and therefore sulked. Sulking is not a bad thing, just a bit self-absorbed. That self-absorbed attitude, as we shall see, can spark events in our lives, and in the lives around us, in ways that can be most destructive to the Kingdom.

6/11/2007

Opening Litany from Psalm 5

Pastor: Listen, LORD, as I pray! Pay attention when I groan. You are my King and my God. Answer my cry for help because I pray to you.

Congregation: Each morning you listen to my prayer, as I bring my requests to you and wait for your reply. You are not the kind of God who is pleased with evil.

Pastor: No one who boasts can stand in your presence, LORD, and you despise the evil in people. You destroy every liar, and you despise violence and deceit.

Congregation: Because of your great mercy, I come to your house, LORD, and I am filled with wonder as I bow down to worship at your holy temple.

Pastor: You do what is right, and I ask you to guide me.

Congregation: Make your teaching clear in all the choices before me, O Lord, and guide me in Your Ways.

6/06/2007

Offertory prayer for the 10th

We thank you O Lord for all the gifts you have given us, each one a vehicle to share your love in this world. Please bless these gifts we pray, the first and best tenth of all you have given us, and help us to use them wisely, along with the many spiritual gifts in this congregation, to be a beacon of your Love and Grace in this world, Amen.

Prayer of the Day for the 10th

Dear Lord, Prayer brings us into conversation with you, our Creator and Redeemer. Love is the joy we feel with your presence in our lives. Hope is the state in which we live knowing we are surrounded by your love and grace. Doing is what brings our relationship with you to life, not only in the lives of those we touch, but in our life also. Help us to move from couch potato, to potato peeling Christians, vibrant and alive in your loving grace. Amen.

Recover and recover from tradition

It is bad religion to deify doctrines and creeds. While indispensable to religious life, doctrines and creeds are only so as signposts. Love alone is the hitching post. Doctrines, let’s not forget, supported slavery and apartheid; some still support keeping women in their places and gays and lesbians in limbo. Moreover, doctrines can divide while compassion can only unite. In other words, religious folk, all our lives, have both to recover tradition and recover from it!

Credo by William Sloane Coffin

Elitist spirituality

We must guard against being too individualistic and elitist in our understanding of spirituality. Some Christians talk endlessly about the importance of one’s interior life and how to develop it more fully, forgetting that Christ is born to bring hope and joy also to whole communities of people – the exiles, the deported, the tortured, the silenced.

Credo by William Sloane Coffin

6/05/2007

Living life

The first of the four cardinal virtues of the Roman Catholic Church is “predentia,” which basically means damn good thinking. Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds.



Spirituality means to me living the ordinary life extraordinarily well. As the old church father said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”


Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

Intellectual faith

There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation. Faith is no substitute for thinking. On the contrary, it is what makes good thinking possible. It has what we might call a limbering effect on the mind; by taking us beyond familiar ground, faith ends up giving us that much more to think about. Certainly Peter and Andrew and James and John, in deciding to follow Jesus, received more to think about than had they stayed at home. And so it is with all of us: if we give our lives to Christ, if we leave familiar territory and take the leap of faith, what we receive in return fills our minds altogether as much as it fills our hearts.

Credo by William Sloane Coffin

6/04/2007

2nd Sunday in Pentecost


Luke 7:1-17

The small child places the feather in the stream
watching it float down the rough seas
and the log jams of leaves
imagining the perils at each turn
and the maneuvering of the crew
as they bring the ship around
with each new dip and swirl
in the foot wide seas
and she knows
she knows what can and can’t be done
what is and what is not real
but does not limiter herself to these
she knows instead the power of believing
beyond the realms of the reality
of this world
into a world ruled by love
the love of God, which says
be healed
be whole

Compassion

Saturday June 16th, Luke 7: 14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." Jesus didn’t stop abortion or gay marriage, he didn’t privatize education or help build bigger fences at our borders, he didn’t try to stack supreme courts or school boards, he didn’t fight communism or try to shove democracy down someone’s throat at the point of a gun, he simple had compassion and helped someone in need. They saw him as a prophet, we know him as Immanuel, God with us.

Fear Not

Friday June 15th, Luke 7: 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry." Fear not, in spite of living in a society that has not the means or the heart to care for the widow and orphan. Fear not, in spite of living in a society that has not the heart to bring an end to war. Fear not, in spite of living in a society that has not the heart to bring an end to poverty. Fear not, in spite of living in a society that has not the heart to provide medical care for all. Fear not, in spite of living in a society that has not the heart to find out why so many are living in our jails instead of being content with simply building more jails. Fear not, the Lord is with you and has ordained to act on his behalf to help build a world where the least, the lost and the lonely fear not.

Grace

Thursday June 14th, Galatians 1: 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, Sooner or later we all come face to face with grace. Sometimes we get to experience it in our lives and learn to live graceful lives, other times it is when we get to the pearly gates and realize all those people we looked down on are there too. That is when we realize that it is grace that lets us in too, and what we missed in life was the joy that comes from graceful living.

Early Fundamentalists

Wednesday June 13th, Galatians 1: 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. Today, Paul would have been know as a fanatic fundamentalists. He had right on his side, he had the power of the state on his side, he had knowledge of scripture on his side, and he knew how to use it. He was ready at a moments notice and without further thought to risk life and limb (at least someone else’s) to protect the word of God. The only trouble is that back then, and through the ages down to today, the main thing the word of God needs protecting from, are those who wish to protect the word of God. We too live at a time when it is not so much a conflict between Christians, Muslims and Jews, but rather between fundamentalists Christians, Muslims and Jews and those of all faiths who wish only to live their lives in decency and respect for the many ways God comes to us.

Hope

Tuesday June 12th, 1 Kings 17: 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth." At that time and place, a woman who had lost her husband and then lost her son, was without family and without hope. Elijah lived with her and brought her hope. Elijah brought her the word of God which was hope. Now Elijah returns to her, her son, which brought her hope. Bringing hope to the hopeless is a much needed ministry in our day and age. What would it take to bring that kind of hope to someone in need in your community?

Trust

Monday June 11th, 1 Kings 17: 13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land. We have as a nation learned not to trust, and for good reason. When I grew up, my parents and I were going somewhere one day and for some reason that has since slipped from my memory, we decided to lock the house. Try as we might, no one could where the key was, or if we even had one. Car keys were never hard to find, they were in the ignition. Even after my parents retired and moved to town, the house was never locked. That kind of trust is born out of knowing relationships. It is those same relationships that caused the Lutheran church service to start late one Sunday, my father was not in church, and most of the people were outside wondering if they should go look for him before church started (and no, he was not a minister) all were relieved when he came walking down the hill from the Catholic Church where he had been for the pancake breakfast. Somehow, I think God is calling us to try to build those kind of trusting, and intimately relational communities where we live and within our churches.

Already been there and done that

Sunday June 10th, 1 Kings 17: 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. Wherever we go in life, God is already there ahead of us. Wherever we are called in ministry, God is already there ahead of us setting the stage. Sometimes us religious types get all hyped up about what we have done in the name of God. At those times we forget that God has already been there, done that, and is calling us as witnesses and ministers. The next time something wonderful happens in ministry, know that you are just the witness of what God has already done. Your job is to provide the logistical support in the aftermath.

Psalm 146 (CEV) Opening Litany

Pastor: I will shout praises to the LORD with all that I am; I will shout praises to God on High.

Congregation: I will sing and praise the LORD God for as long as I live.

Pastor: You can't depend on anyone, not even a great leader the way you can trust in the Lord, once they are gone, that will be the end of all their plans.

Congregation: The LORD God of Jacob blesses everyone who trusts him and depends on him.

Pastor: God made heaven and earth; God created the sea and everything else, we can always trust God.

Congregation: The Lord gives justice to the poor and food to the hungry, the LORD sets prisoners free and heals blind eyes, the Lord gives a helping hand to everyone who falls.

Pastor: The LORD loves good people and looks after strangers, defends the rights of orphans and widows, but destroys the plans of the wicked.

Congregation: We are compelled as the children of God to do the same.

Pastor: The LORD God of Zion will rule forever!

Congregation: Shout praises to the LORD!

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