10W for the 7th week of Easter, We are One

The following is a 10 minute worship for the 7th week of Easter, We are one. You can either listen on the flash player below or download to your favorite music program to sync with your mp3 player or download directly to your smartphone by following this link and clicking on "DOWNLOAD"

10W for June 2nd, the Ascension of our Lord

The following is a 10 minute worship for the festival of the Ascension of our Lord on June 2nd. You can either listen on the flash player below or download to your favorite music program to sync with your mp3 player or download directly to your smartphone by following this link and clicking on "DOWNLOAD"

Luke 24:44-53 The Ascension

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
And the earth was formless and void
And chaos ruled
And God created
And declared
It is Good
It is good this creation of earth
It is good this creation of life
It is even good
This earthling from the earth
Made in the image of God
It is good
And not all good
Tempted to turn inward
Tempted to eat of the tree
Tempted to be god
With a little g
Then one came
Of lowly birth and high calling
Called to fulfill what was called into being as good
Bringing forgiveness
For inward turning little “g’s”
To turn them outward once again
From Jerusalem
To all the nations of this earth
Called good
To bring the news of new beginnings
Freedom from the created chaos
Of the ever inward turning earthling
Called to go into all of creation
Called good
And bring the news of new beginnings
Freedom from
Inward turnings
Freedom for
Outward yearnings
And as he ascended from Bethany below
To the heavens all around
He told them to go
To every nook and cranny
Every nation and state
Every tribe and village
And bring the forgiving news of goodness
As they once again turned inward
To small “g”
And stayed in the temple day and night
Praising god

John 17:1-11 7th Sunday of Easter

One
Called to be one
with the Creator
with Redeemer
with the Spirit who leads
        and sanctifies us all
One
Called to be one
with the sisters
with the brothers
with the mothers and fathers
             of us all
United through Christ
and through all time
to be your children
and preach your word
to all who would hear
to tell the world of your love
and the life you offer
one called to be one
guide me Lord Jesus, I pray

When will the world end?

Sunday June 5th, Acts 1: 6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." I can hear the disciples talking now, “OK, this had been fun, and now we can go back to choosing sides on who will be the winner in business as usual?” It almost seems as if would have been appropriate for Jesus to ascend into Heaven shaking his head in disbelief over the cluelessness of the disciples, over the cluelessness of you and I. Instead, he gives them and us once again, directions on what we are to be about. Go into the world and bring the news of salvation for all. Go into the world and announce the Kingdom is near, where ever you are, whoever you are, go announce the good news. It is not about national or cultural boundaries, it is about the kingdom of God. Before we too shake our heads in disbelief, remember all the times we have wanted, and still want to claim the Kingdom of God as exclusive property, how we have wanted to hold up those hoops for others to jump through in our churches. Jesus sends us out also to simply announce that the Kingdom is at hand, all the other junk is simply our own baggage.

don't look up

Monday June 6th, Acts 1: 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." All too often we find ourselves standing there looking up also. As long as our eyes are heavenward, we can justify not using our hands and feet to do heavens bidding. Jesus will return, not in some sadistic fiery apocalyptic way, that is all made up stuff and is as Barbara Rossing calls it in her book, “The Rapture Exposed” a racket. But Jesus is there each and every day in the eyes of the neighbor being served as well as in the eye of the one doing the serving. Looking up only keeps us from looking in those eyes. Praise Music if fine and looking up helps us feel holy, but it only becomes holy when we look down and the least, lost and lonely. The risen Christ calls us instead to look around and announce in word and deed what is already hear, the Kingdom is near.

The empires of power do not like it

Tuesday June 7th, 1 Peter 4: 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Being a child of God is not easy. The empires of power do not like it. Being a child of God calls one to care for the least, lost and lonely, the empires would just as soon forget them unless they can help the ones at the top gain more power. Being a child of God means speaking a word against the concentration of power and profit and for justice. It means being counter-cultural. It means caring for the least, lost and lonely. All those ballot bait issues only serve to help Christians feel noble while not acting like Christians.

see if your life doesn’t change

Wednesday June 8th, 1 Peter 4: 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Being a counter-cultural Christian is not easy. There are constant temptations that we all succumb to, having said that, there are also moments every once in a while when the kingdom of God shines through. Rejoice, and ground yourself in the word each day for the many encounters with the kingdom that lay ahead. If you haven’t tried it yet, go to 10W, the way to start your day. Try six weeks of worship on the way to work and see if your life doesn’t change.

try being nice

Thursday June 9th, John 17: 1 after Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. 2 And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. 3 Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. Jesus was given power over all people so that he give power to all people. Along with this came the gift of eternal life. Eternal life is to know God. To know Jesus is to know God. Can it really be any more simple than that? Jesus was given power over all people to give them eternal life, which is to know God. Our job as the children of God is to live out our lives knowing that everyone we meet is a brother or a sister through Christ. If we don’t like it or if they don’t like it, well that is a problem to deal with. So far humanity has tried to deal with that problem by trying to be big deals (Manna & Mercy, by Dan Erlander, check out the link on the left) piling up stuff and killing other brothers and sisters. Maybe we should try being nice, being a child of God for a change.

all we can fathom

Friday June 10th, John 17: 6 You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. We can speculate all we want about God up in Heaven, and we may say a lot of nice words, but we will get nowhere. Jesus comes to us to show us what God is like. It might not be all of what God is like, but it is all we need to know or perhaps all we can fathom in this life. But to know Jesus is to know God, now hum a few bars of “Jesus loves me” and smile.

announce the nearness

Saturday June 11th, John 17: 10 All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me. 11 Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. So now it is our turn, to go into the world and “be” the face of God, the hands of Jesus, with a heart of love. You are not alone, ever. Like it or not, the spirit of God is with you. So go, announce the nearness of the Kingdom of God in word and in deed.

10W for festival of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, May 31st

The following is a 10 minute worship for the festival of Mary's visit to Elizabeth on May 31st. You can either listen on the flash player below or download to your favorite music program to sync with your mp3 player or download directly to your smartphone by following this link and clicking on "DOWNLOAD"

10W for 6th week of Easter, Love one another

The following is a 10 minute worship for the 6th week of Easter beginning May 29th. You can either listen on the flash player below or download to your favorite music program to sync with your mp3 player or download directly to your smartphone by following this link and clicking on "DOWNLOAD"

John 14:15-21 6th Sunday of Easter

We thank you Lord for your love
For guiding us in the way
For leading us in the truth
For loving us into life
Send now your Spirit
That we may know you
In our hearts
            In our lives
                         In our loves
And walk in the ways you lead
To hear your voice and take heed
To follow
Not where we will
But need
Guide us Lord
In your path of Love
To the place you created us to be
And fill our hearts with your love

Opening Litany based on Psalm 66:8-20

Worship Leader: Come all you people, let us praise the Lord our God. Let the sound of our Praise be heard over all the land and in every heart.

Congregation: For the Lord has preserved our lives and keep us from slipping off the path of grace. The Lord has made us pure as fine silver by testing us this world of self help and business.

Worship Leader: You gave us toys, entertainment and other shinny things to try to draw us away from your grace.

Congregation: You let others ride over us and lay the burden of abundance on our backs, tempting us to leave you behind as we sought only the god of self. 

Worship Leader: I will spend time in your presence O Lord and fulfill the vows I spoke when I thought I was in trouble.

Congregation: I will give back from the abundance you have given me, offering up to you, both my treasures and my time.

Worship Leader: Come gather and hear all you who walk as the children of God, and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me. I raised my voice in Praise before my God, and the Lord God heard me and blessed me. If I had cherished only sin and my selfish desires, my own noise would have drowned out the word of God’s grace and I would still be longing, seeking for something more in life.

Congregation: We will praise the Lord our God with our voice, our time, and our deeds, for the Lord has heard our prayers and has responded with love and grace.

the vastness and diversity of God’s love

Sunday May 29th, Acts 17: 22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, All too often we hear the rhetoric of one religion or another saying they have the truth for all of humanity, and if everyone would only just believe the way they do they would be saved. The children of God called Christians are especially bad at this. On the other hand, the message is that if they do not believe the way each of these groups of the followers of God do, well, then it is time to get the asbestos suit ready because hell is awaiting. Paul on the other hand recognizes the spiritually yearning of those he meets and calls them to consider his vision of God. God comes to all people in many different ways. For me, it is the Grace of the Lutheran emphasis fits who I am. For others it may be some other form of expression. Instead of God being “either/or” I think that God is “both/and.” Lutheran is right for me, Judaism for you, Islam for someone else. Is there more than one God with a capital G? I don’t thing so. There are more than enough small “g” gods that fill our lives and draw us away from the big “G” God; all the variations of the capital G just show the vastness and diversity of God’s love. The variations of the small “g” god only show our cultural differences.

There is a short distance between righteousness and self-righteousness

Monday May 30th, Acts 17: 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ One of the pivotal stories of scripture for me is the story of the Good Samaritan. The question, “who acted like a neighbor?” is central to the teaching of Christ. These teaching of finding God in others are also central to Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. It is also significant that the religions scholars of the day passed by. Their focus, as all too often is ours, was more on correctness than on calling. There is a short distance between righteousness and self-righteousness. One calls us to follow the God of love, the other calls us to follow the god of our desire, as one would an idol. All too often in Christianity, we place Jesus on a pedestal and worship him as one would an idol, worshiping the person, as an object rather than what Jesus taught us to follow, the word of God for all people. We are called to follow Jesus as the son of God, the one who teaches us the way. That way leads us face to face with our neighbor, not around him. That way leads us to love one another and God has loved us.

neither door mat nor mud thrower

Tuesday May 31st, 1 Peter 3: 13-18 If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. I am a political junkie, and I am fed up with our political process that draws the best among us to the lowest level of the collective “us.” Then I think, why should I expect one of the candidates to be better than the rest of humanity. Whether we are talking about Syria or the Ivory Coast or Madison or the US, those who run for office are all subject to being human. Throwing mud or throwing bullets come from the same human frailty of getting caught up in the tactics of the other. We have met the enemy and he is us is the way Pogo put it. Jesus calls us to a third way, neither door mat nor mud thrower, but rather someone who actively helps put the spotlight on injustice, our focus on caring for the least lost and lonely, and it is there God helps bring about change in our lives and in the world.

walk with others

Wednesday June 1st, 1 Peter 3 : 19 He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn't listen. God’s salvation is for all people, in every time and in every place, even in the prison of their own choosing. We all succumb to the prison of judgment, most often our own judgment pronounced upon others. It is the opposite of grace and it is the human tendency, some may say the original sin. It is the tendency to slip from receiving God’s grace to feeling somehow we are in control of it, or at least have a handle on it, and those others do not. Which is just another way of saying that what God is talking about is not grace at all, just forewarning. Just as there is a short distance from righteousness to self-righteousness, there is a short distance from a follower of God to being a mini-god, ruler of our own small universe (no caps). Rather than judging others, we are called to walk with others as God walks with us. It is the harder way to go, it is also the Godlier way to go.

Jesus calls us to a higher calling

Thursday June 2nd, John 14: 15-17 "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. Which is more important, following Jesus, or following Jesus teachings? When asked to love one another, pray for our enemies, forgive 70 X’s 7, care for the least lost and lonely, act as a neighbor even to the stranger and sojourner among us, most of us chose Jesus the person. Jesus calls us to a higher calling. It is not the easier way to go, it is the Godlier way to go!!!!! Which will you follow?

until we get it right

Friday June 3rd, John 14: 18-20 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. In growing up on the farm I road along many times with my father as he was plowing. I learned every little thing there was to learn about plowing on our farm. When it came time for me to plow alone,….. well, let’s just say the rows were not quite as straight as what I had imagined them being in my mind. Making straight rows took time and doing it myself rather than just watching and learning how it was done by someone else. Jesus left us with the spirit for the same reason. With Jesus here to follow in the form of the Holy Spirit, we would never learn what it means to be a child of God, only to follow what it means to be The child of God. It is our struggle and our striving that that put it all together. It is the Spirit that calls us to turn around and try another row, again and again until we get it right.

And live!!!!!!!!!

Saturday June 4th, John 14: 18-20 " I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. Come alive in the word of God. Come alive in caring for one another. Come alive through the Grace of Christ and come alive knowing that it is the Spirit of God that dwells in one another, sister, brother, friend and enemy. Come alive!!!!!! And know that you are surrounded by the love of God and the Spirit of God and the presence of God in those around you. Come alive!!!!! And live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10W for 5th week of Easter, Many Rooms

The following is a 10 minute worship for the fifth week of Easter starting May 22, Many Rooms. You can either listen on the flash player below or download to your favorite music program to sync with your mp3 player or download directly to your smartphone by following this link and clicking on "DOWNLOAD"

John 14:1-12 5th Sunday of Easter

How can I go

How can I get there on my own

                (I am the Way)

How can I

                can I

                            I

and they looked and saw they were naked

and ashamed

from the beginning of creation

we have tried to be gods

to bargain

                plead

                                beg

all the while not knowing

                or hearing

of God’s love for us

be with me Lord and guide me

take away the insistence of being in charge

and fill me with your freedom

to see who I am

a child of God

                (the truth)

loved by the Creator

                (and the life)

Opening Litany based on Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

Pastor: In the Lord our God we will take our refuge, it is there we will never be put to shame for the Lord, out of the righteousness of God, has delivered us from all evil.   

Congregation: Hear us O Lord, open our hearts to know of your presence and let us know you have rescued us from all that would do us mortal harm, for you are our rock, our refuge in a sea of turmoil.

Pastor: Walk with us O Lord, for you are our rock, our island in a sea of turmoil and you will never desert us in this world.

Congregation: Keep us free from the traps we step into every day for it is into your hands we give our lives, our spirits, knowing your will never forsake us. 

Pastor: The time allotted to our life on this earth is in your Hands O Lord.

Congregation: Let Your Face O Lord shine upon us with unfailing love, for we are forever indebted to you.  

marriage of church and state

Monday May 23^rd, Acts 7: the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.  The Saul in this text later had his name changed to Paul.  The enforcer of entrenched orthodoxy would be swept up in these new teachings of Christ and become the messenger of grace to those he formerly considered on the outside.  This story has all the hallmarks of a mini crucifixion, complete with the clothes laid at his feet and the cry of Stephen for forgiveness.  The resurrection is when Paul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus.  We must always be wary of the desire to silence the voices of opposition in the name of God, whether that come about by force, or by fancy footwork.  This story of Saul and Stephen is a stark reminder of what happens when a marriage takes place between church and state and the state starts using the faith community to maintain its power.  It happened in Germany under Hitler, in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and one might even question what is going on with the GOP and American evangelicals under Bush and today.  The true motive is never about faith and always about power.  When religion and politics merge, grace and the least, lost and lonely children of God are the victims.    

cutting edge

Sunday May 22^nd, Acts 7: 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.  New realities are often seen as a threat to our entrenched way of life.  Orthodoxy is not always bad, it is the keel in the water that keeps the church from being blown off course by every little change that blows through.  Sometimes however it can prevent the winds of change from taking the church in along the path of relevance.  Orthodoxy is what today keeps part of the church from being blown off into the stormy waters of fundamentalism, it helps keep the message of God’s love and grace alive.  But it is when it closes the door on possibility and clings to absolutes that bow to the power of a few it goes astray.  Good theology is always on the cutting edge between orthodoxy and change, some say on the cutting edge between heresy and orthodoxy. 

more than sand castles

Tuesday May 24^th, 1 Peter 2: 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. A good nurturing foundation is a gift that continues for the whole of one’s life.  Too often the curse of living in an affluent society is that there are so many choices for our children we tend to skip the foundational nourishment and go right for the sugar.  With a foundation of love and acceptance children grow to know God as love and acceptance.  Are children a part of the worship service?  Are children welcomed at communion?  One of the best gifts in our congregation is families serving communion together.  Young children may not be handling the common cup but they can carry the tray to pick up the empty cups.  The most important gift is the understanding that they are included, that God loves them.  Do they understand communion, sure, most of the time there is a big smile on their face as they reach out to accept the bread.  That smile tells me they know they are included and are an important part of the family of God.  So for proper nutrition churches need to include the children in all aspects of worship.  Families, are you so busy with soccer, sports, fishing and fun that you can’t quite bring the children to worship?  God has given you a gift in your children, what are you doing for them that is important.  Without a foundation any building, no matter how fancy, will fall.  Your children deserve more than sand castles. 

I am the way

Thursday May 26^th, John 14:  1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  Sometimes those rooms are for others who do not see the world as we do.  Sometimes those rooms are for our enemies, you know, the ones we are to pray for.  Sometimes those rooms are for those who seek God through other faiths.  Sometimes we get the point that we are not the ones in charge of deciding who gets a room and who doesn’t, God is.  All this anti-mosque talk about NYC, the Quran burning, fundamentalists Islam against the Coptic’s in Egypt, the Palestinians and the Israeli’s trying to find ways of pushing the other out, the Rev. Phelps and our own ABT apocalypse talk, is just that, only talk.  It has nothing to do with God and God’s love.  It is about loving hate and your own warped concept of power more than God.  Perhaps there is no hell, and it is just that when mortal enemies end up as roommates, it seems to them like eternal damnation until they can get around to offering forgiveness, and accepting it for that matter.   

if it ain ‘t grace, it ain’t God

Wednesday May 25^th, 1 Peter 2:  4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Those living stones are often rejected by humanity because they don’t fit into the power structure.  Love one another, care for the least lost and lonely, pray for your enemies, forgive one another, all good things to say in church but try them in the real world and you will get some heat and more than a few mighty strange looks.  And yet, they are the foundation on which the church is built.  It is the foundation on which to live your life and the foundation to teach your children for their life.  Neither they nor you are likely to get rich off it, if that indeed is your goal, but they and you will have a foundation for happiness.  When it comes to living as a child of God, if it ain ‘t grace, it ain’t God. 

with Christ all things are possible

Friday May 27^th, John 14: 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."  This text is often interpreted as exclusive rather than inclusive.  From Fredrick Buechner’s wishful thinking we get the notion that when it says that not everyone who cries Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom, perhaps the corollary is that not everyone who wouldn’t be caught dead saying Lord, Lord, will be damned either.  If Jesus is the way does that mean that only those who lift high the name of Jesus or even call themselves Christian will be saved, or does it mean that only through the grace of God as manifest in Christ are all saved?  It is through the grace of Christ that even if someone wouldn’t be caught dead uttering the name of Jesus in a positive way or claiming Christianity as their own, they could still be saved.  On our own, it just won’t work, with Christ all things are possible.  One way lifts high the name of Christ; the other lifts high the teachings of Christ.  In the end is there really a difference?

What must I do to be saved?

Saturday May 28^th, John 14: 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  Luther would call this God hidden and God revealed.  There may be many aspects of God on which we can speculate, but when it comes to knowing God as God wants us to know the Almighty, all we have Jesus.  All those stories of the vengeful god we find in places in the Old Testament, perhaps there is more than a bit of human desire showing through and calling it the will of God.  What must I do to be saved? The young man asked.  Love God and Love you neighbor was the answer.  Who is my neighbor the young man asked?  The story of the Good Samaritan along with the question who acted like a neighbor was the answer.  Go and do likewise was the command.  Through God all things are possible. 

10W for 4th Easter

10W for the fourth Sunday of Easter, Hear the voice.  You can find this and all the 10W worship for May at www.10worship.blogspot.com

John 10:1-10 4th Sunday of Easter

 I hear the cry from all sides

                come follow

                See how I have put together the facts

                Hear the story I have woven

                airtight

that sounds by all reason

                like truth

I yearn to follow

                but where

I hear the cry from within

                (I have come)

and know that voice

                I see not

                I hear not

the seamless reason

of carefully crafted facts

I know only the one who was

on the cross

                (that you might have life)

Who tasted death

                And life

                Before me

Who has risen

                To bring life to me

                Peace to me

Hope to me

that I may now shout for Joy

and Live

                (life in its fullness)

Life

Opening Litany based on Psalm 23

Pastor: There are times when we seem almost deaf to the blessings that surround us. In the midst of our fear, our pain, our complacency, we choose not to see the blessings in our lives, we choose not to hear the calling of our Lord.  And then something happens and without the ability to fix it on our own, we start to hear the voice of God that has been there all along. 

Congregation: The LORD is our shepherd, we shall not be in want for the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside quiet waters. The Lord restores my soul and guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Pastor: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for the Lord is with me; The Lord’s guidance comforts me.

Congregation: For the Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of those who would harm us. The Lord provides us with all we need and our cup of blessing overflows.

Pastor: Surely goodness and love will follow us all the days of my lives,

Congregation: And we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Honda Living

Sunday May 15^th, Acts 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. This is a little part of the Acts text that has not found favor with the free market group.  I dare say it is a market strategy that would not work on a very large scale.  Not because it is a bad strategy, but because the children of this world are not quite mature enough to handle this kind of calling from God.  We are still all too concerned with the Me rather than the We.  It is however something toward which to strive.  Most of the conversations in Washington however seem to be focused on which teams contributors can benefit the most rather than what is best for others.  In our faith communities however we are called to a higher standard.  We are called to view our worship communities as a place to share and to care for one another, to work toward economic equality and justice, these are the lofty goals of a loving and caring community in Christ.  It is the vision we are called to hold up before one another and the community, recognizing the distance between ideal and reality, but always turning toward the ideal in our journey. 

thrashing bee’s

Monday May 16^th, Acts 2: 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  When older people, like myself, remember the good old days, what they often remember is how the need to work together played out in community.  My dad was one of the last holdouts to get a combine for harvesting the grain.  Threshing required community, people working together for the common good of all, and that is what we did.  In the Midwest there are a number of places where they hold thrashing bee’s where all those who remember these grand old machines can come and spend a day participating and remembering the good old days of a community’s working together for the common good.  Sometimes they bring their children or grandchildren along to experience the joy of those days of yore.  All too often when it is over they go home and at the next election vote down the school bonds because they don’t have any kids in school and property taxes are already too high.  The lesson of thrashing remains back on the farm until they venture out for the next year remembrance of community, after all who needs community when you’ve got it made?  And perhaps that is the problem.  We learned very well how to handle our dependence, now we are able to keep our dependence hidden and pretend it is not there.