Opening Litany based on Psalm 25,

Psalm 25: 1-10 - This psalm is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, therefore in using the first ten verses I attempted to follow that patterning in English.

Pastor: All gather before you O Lord as we lift our souls to you.

Congregation: Be merciful onto us O Lord and do not let us be put to shame for we put our trust in You O Lord our God.

Pastor: Can anyone whose hope is in the Lord be put to shame?

Congregation: Doomed however are those who are treacherous without excuse, for they will be put to shame.

Pastor: Evermore you will show me your ways, O LORD and teach me to walk in your paths; You O Lord guide me in your truth and teach me your ways,

Congregation: For you are my God and my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Pastor: Gracious Lord, Remember your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.

Congregation: Heed not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways;

Pastor: Instead, remember me according to your love, for you are merciful, O LORD.

Congregation: Just and upright is the LORD who instructs sinners in the ways of righteousness.

Pastor: Kindly the Lord guides the humble in what is right and teaches them the ways of grace and mercy.

Congregation: Lord our God, all your ways are loving and faithful for those who walk in your ways.

Poem based on Luke 14:1-14

Once I view the world

with a what can I get out of it

            attitude

Jesus looks with pity

            on my choice

Once we view one of the least of these

            my brothers and sisters

as the least

we say more about ourselves

and our view of God

            than we do of them

humble thyself

in the site of the Lord

humble thyself

and you will be raised up

to life

            love

                        God

humble thyself

and seek only to be

a child of God

fulfillment

Sunday September 1^st, Deuteronomy 30:  15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.  After a generation of wondering in the wilderness, the liberated people of God were poised to enter the promise land.  There were still choices ahead of them, though not many in the immediate future.  They could remain in the wilderness, back to their roots as nomads, or enter the land promised to Abraham.  Neither choice was free.  Either choice would require effort on their part to either remain connected to the promises to Abraham as they enter the land, or set themselves free and learn to forage on their own for food and water.  If they choose to enter the new land (to them) and remain connected to God’s promises it did not mean a free ride with everything going well all the time and manna and meat on the wing every day.  Free will back then, as it does now, takes its toll.  And so it is with us, do we remain connected to God’s promises,  or do we let our gift of free will take us down the path of least resistance?  Most of us spend the majority of our time, money and effort on the wrong path, for that there is forgiveness. Once in a while however, we find ourselves on God’s path for us, that is when we get a feeling of fulfillment and life makes sense.  

=

Monday September 2^nd, Deuteronomy 30: Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.   Most of us in this scenario would want to choose life.  It sounds good, it sounds holy, and it sounds fulfilling and whole.  Choosing life, on the surface, always seems good.  But what that choice also means is that we choose to love God, obey God, and hold fast to God. Life is like an equation, what happens on one side of the = sign, effects what happens on the other. Choosing life is not free; it also means we choose a life of loving God and the hard work of loving others.  It means we often choose the life of taking the lowest seat, remembering that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Choosing life means we take the path of a servant, putting the needs of others as we would put the need of serving Jesus because that which you do onto the least of these you do onto me.  Choosing life in God is not just a “take the grace and run thing,” it is responding to the grace given by purposely living a life of living gracefully with and for others.  We do not often do this part of the equation so well, but at least most of us try from time to time.  At those times when we wander off the path, forgetting our part of the equation, is where God’s love and forgiveness come in.    

easy

Tuesday September 3^rd, Philemon:  10-14 While here in jail, I've fathered a child, so to speak. And here he is, hand-carrying this letter—Onesimus! He was useless to you before; now he's useful to both of us. I'm sending him back to you, but it feels like I'm cutting off my right arm in doing so. I wanted in the worst way to keep him here as your stand-in to help out while I'm in jail for the Message. But I didn't want to do anything behind your back, make you do a good deed that you hadn't willingly agreed to. First things first, Paul did not really father a child, in modern terms, he mentored a leader.  Years ago while I was on Sabbatical, our congregation was taking care of all the duties, leading worship, sharing the message, leading the singing, serving the meal and even a baptism.  In listening to the services on line, I sometimes felt like I had fathered a child.  It was wonderful and exciting to listen to all this happen. Then I returned and old patterns both within the congregation and within me returned, the congregation went from taking care of, to being taken care of.  I have been in this congregation for 23 years and am beginning to question the wisdom of long term ministries.  It is easy for me, but I see the congregation falling into old patterns as a chaplaincy congregation rather than a mission field.  How have long or short periods of call affected ministry in your life?  How have they affected the lives of congregations?  

expectation

Wednesday September 4^th, Philemon: 21-22 I know you well enough to know you will. You'll probably go far beyond what I've written. And by the way, get a room ready for me. Because of your prayers, I fully expect to be your guest again.  23 Epaphras, my cellmate in the cause of Christ, says hello.  Paul trusted in God unfailingly even when Paul was sitting in jail.  Paul lived in constant anticipation of what God had in store for him, what new adventure was around the next corner.  Even prison was just another opportunity to witness, and even in prison Paul could anticipate the joys God still had to set before him. If we could only live our lives that way, filled with expectation and joy and hopefulness, perhaps we too could see the spirit’s leading in all of life.  Sometimes a crisis is just a way to open new doors. 

last chapter

Thursday September 5^th, Luke 14:  25-27 One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one's own self!—can't be my disciple. Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple.  Being a follower of Christ is not just something we do occasionally; it is a description of who we are.  To be a follower of Christ, one is called to put other things in life aside.  Being a Christian is more than just a fad, or in the case of the modern church, an anti-fad fad, it is a day by day walk with the God of all humility and humanity and all creation.  This is a calling by Christ who has laid a path before you and is there to help you on your way.  Sometimes the hardest part is to take the first step.  Sometimes the hardest part is to close the book on the last chapter in anticipation of what comes next.  But no matter where you go, as a child of God, remember that you are never alone.    

commitment

Friday September 6^th, Luke 14:  28-30 "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 'He started something he couldn't finish.'  31-32 "Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce? I built a new deck on my house several years ago.  The idea started with extending the deck and butting it up against a retaining wall.  Next came building the retaining wall, which we then discovered needed a deeper foundation to find the good soil that would provide stability for the wall.  After all the preparations it was the end of summer and I finally got around to actually building the deck.  Moral, even if we make plans, it is always a good idea to get a sense of the extent of what is needed before jumping into a project.  We are also called to put the same diligence and perseverance and planning into following Christ.  It is the process of bringing Christ from the periphery of our lives to the center of our lives that brings wholeness to life; it is also a decision that will cost us our lives as we have come to know them.  We do this all the time with things that cost money.  We sign contracts and commitments that last for years.   We know how to do this with life and money, but do we follow the same commitment with faith?  All too often we hear excuses of those who have made a monetary commitment to a cabin, boat or motor home and therefore feel obligated to use them every spare moment, leaving church in the dust.   I have yet to hear of someone who made a commitment to children, church or God and made that their overwhelming commitment which then governed the how or what of their other commitments in life.  

listen

Saturday September 7^th, Luke 14:  33 "Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can't be my disciple. Soon it will be September 11^th.  Most remember this as the day when the US was attacked by religious extremist from Saudi Arabia.  The day after the attack there were several calls to not get sucked into the downward spiral of hatred and turn this into a war that would alienate the many in the world who now stood on the side of the US.  The report I most remember did not come from a theological network, but rather from an investment program on National Public Radio.  The premise was that this situation was an opportunity to show forgiveness and focus on the good and in the process cultivate favorable markets and an atmosphere for global cooperation that would enhance international trade for generations to come.  But we couldn’t say good bye to that which we held nearest and dearest to out hearts, the drive for hatred and greed.  Instead of attacking the Shiite strongholds from which Al Qaeda sprung, we chose to instead attack the Sunni stronghold of Iraq, which just happened to hold a lot of oil.   If you are not willing to take that which is nearest and dearest to you and kiss it good-bye, you are easy prey for those who would use you and the lives of your loved ones as cannon fodder for their own personal short term greed.  All the while we had the airwaves filled with the likes of Glenn Beck and FOX being fairly successful at dupping us again to follow our basic racist instincts and return us to this short term greed of which  nation upon nation  have fallen in the past.  Love God and Love thers, that is the command according to Christ.  The others Jesus was talking about were not just those whose skin is the same color as our own, who live in the same neighborhood we do, who talk, act and think like us, but also the rest of creation the God created and called good.  When we acted on this day out of our fears and hatreds and racism, when we denied the building of Mosques dedicated to moderation and decency, when we listened to the vitriol disguised as news from FOX we fell victim to our own hatred, and become so much less than we were created to be.  In the end we ended up doing the bidding of those who pull the strings and fit the bills behind the hallowed halls of congress.  Pick up Luke and read it beginning to end, then do the same for the other gospels.  Listen to what Jesus is saying, not what some TV preacher hack or some hate radio jock tells you it means.  Read the Gospel, IT IS ABOUT LOVING GOD AND LOVING OTHERS, ALL OTHERS.  If the Gospel does not fit into that you are not hearing it correctly.   You are still holding on to your age old hatred and racism and you are being played. 

Opening litany based on Psalm 103

Pastor: Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise the Lord’s holy name.

Congregation: Praise the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all the Lord’s benefits and blessings.

Pastor: Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases?

Congregation: The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Pastor: Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion?

Congregation: The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Pastor: Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle?

Congregation: The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Pastor: The Lord made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:

Congregation: The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Poem based on Luke 13:10-17 Healing on the Sabbath

Child of God you are free

Stand up

To the powers that be

Holding up the law

Intended for life

Freedom

Healing

And used all too often only as control

Stand up

Celebrate the Sabbath with a smile and a shout

Celebrate the Sabbath and keep it holy with joy

Celebrate the Sabbath and send the devil packing

Out of your life

Forget the cry of the controlling

Holding up the law

While running from it

The law was made for do’s

And we have turned it into a book of don’ts

From life

To death

Stand up and celebrate

Sing with joy and thanksgiving

And on the seventh day God rested

And it was good.

10w for August 25th, Compassion, P14

The following is a 10 minute worship for August 25th, Compassion, P14. You can listen on the flash player below. You now also have the option of receiving these notices each week and on festival days by signing up for the 10W constant contact email list on the right side of the 10W blog where it says "Please Join our Email List." The Song for the day is "Healing Hand of Jesus" by the Jay Beech Band from the CD "Everyone who is thirsty, come" which can be purchased HERE

Poem based on John 1:43-51 St. Bartholomew, Apostle

out of a world of doubt

crashing through

with words still on his lips

of a culture well worn

a people nurtured at the hand of God

and yet

a culture shed at the words of knowing

history set aside

for the sake of all time

            (Rabbi)

and all people

called out of a life

of known

to a life of unknown

            (You are the Son of God)

that would bring all life

to a newness

promised from before all time

            (you are the King of Israel)

for all people

10w for August 24th, Bartholomew, Apostle.

The following is a 10 minute worship for August 24th, Bartholomew, Apostle. You can listen on the flash player below. You now also have the option of receiving these notices each week and on festival days by signing up for the 10W constant contact email list on the right side of the 10W blog where it says "Please Join our Email List." The Song for the day is "We are Called" by Dakota Road from the CD "All Are Welcome" which can be purchased HERE

malicious talk

Sunday August 25^th, Isaiah 58:  9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah is addressed not to individuals as much as to the nations.  Let’s read this from a national point of view.  Have we done away with the yoke of oppression by cutting taxes on the top 1% and corporations?  When we refer to others as “empires of evil” have we done away with malicious talk or pointing fingers, or have we helped to open any conversation that could result in the good for all the children of God?  Is delaying the minimum wage at a time when the discrepancy between CEO’s and wage earners is at an all-time high, and cutting support for Head start and food stamps spending ourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfying the needs of the oppressed?  Perhaps the best way to “fight” terrorism is to promote agendas and programs and budgets that will let our light, not our oppression, rise in the darkness.  

glorious moments

Monday August 26^th, Isaiah 58: 13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken.  I will not kid myself, not all spiritual worship is in church.  There are many glorious moments out in this great land, especially here in Alaska, where one can have an invaluable primary experience with God.  Most worship is considered a secondary worship experience with God, in that it is often public remembrance of other experiences.  However, over the years the average attendance at worship has gone from two Sundays a month to one Sunday every six weeks (no scientific data, only my guesstament)  Perhaps this is a reflection on society in general or the church in general or the church in particular.  Whatever the cause, it is a call to implement some change.  Many are looking hard at what that might be.  I however am simply moving forward in service, loving one another.  

Last Temptation

Tuesday August 27^th, Hebrews 12: 24 You've come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.  On the cross, Jesus took all the evil humanity can give and proclaimed that it is not more evil than all the good God can give.  In the book and film, “the last temptation of Christ,” the depiction was the strongest argument to just give into to the tempters plan for the world.  The gift of grace was Jesus’ “no” to the temptations of this world, temptations to just give in, temptations we all succumb to, and “yes” to God’s way of self-giving love and the gift of eternal life for all.  The gift of the cross is salvation for all.

cleaning

Wednesday August 28^th, Hebrews 12: 28-29 Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!  Fire is often used as a metaphor for cleaning and purifying.  It takes all the extra stuff in our lives and clears it away.  It leaves what is pure in the refining process.  What is all the extra stuff that gets in the way of true worship in your life?  What needs to be cleared away in order to experience a fuller revelation of God in your life?  

stand straight

Thursday August 29^th, Luke 13:  10-13 He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn't even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. "Woman, you're free!" He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.  The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath.  Jesus was often one to break the Sabbath rules, but it was to do good rather than for personal pleasure.  Worship helps to set us free also.  When we are free for the day, when we can focus clearly on our need for rest and refreshment, when we can connect freely to our loving creator God, then we have received the Sabbath gift to humanity.  The response that helps keep the process going is to stand straight and tall and give glory to God.  All too often we get caught up into making the most of the Sabbath by going out into the world for an adventure.   It is a good thing.  But all too often it is an avoidance thing.  It connects us to the beauty of God’s creation without ever connecting us to God of creation.  In the process, we are the ones who lose. 

forgo sleep

Friday August 30^th, Luke 13:  14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, "Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath."   Sometimes the established order of things needs to be shaken up a bit.  Sometimes the healing that is needed is to spend the day in worship.  If one were to try to work all the time and forgo sleep day after day, soon, among other things, you would become very unproductive.  So it is with the Sabbath.  Without it, all those things we strive for in life just become a blur.  In the end, it is we, not God, who loses.

untie

Saturday August 31^st, Luke 13: 15-16 But Jesus shot back, "You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn't it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?"  Rules are often about what others are doing wrong according to our standards rather than what we are doing right.  All worship should be about freeing ourselves from the burdens of life.  Our burdens are not the same as those of others.  More times than I can count I have given what I considered to be a sermon that totally missed the mark, only to have someone tell me how it spoke right to what they were dealing with.  I may wonder what I said or what they heard, but it matters little.  God works in many ways to untie us from the burdens of life and to free us for a life of worship. 

10w August 24th, Bartholomew, Apostle

The following is a 10 minute worship for August 24th, Bartholomew, Apostle. You can listen on the flash player below. You now also have the option of receiving these notices each week and on festival days by signing up for the 10W constant contact email list on the right side of the 10W blog where it says "Please Join our Email List." The Song for the day is "We are Called" by Dakota Road from the CD "All Are Welcome"  which can be purchased HERE
 

Poem based on John 1:43-51 St. Bartholomew, Apostle

out of a world of doubt

crashing through

with words still on his lips

of a culture well worn

a people nurtured at the hand of God

and yet

a culture shed at the words of knowing

history set aside

for the sake of all time

            (Rabbi)

and all people

called out of a life

of known

to a life of unknown

            (You are the Son of God)

that would bring all life

to a newness

promised from before all time

            (you are the King of Israel)

for all people

10w for August 18th, Fire in the Belly, P13.

The following is a 10 minute worship for August 18th, Fire in the Belly, P13. You can listen on the flash player below. You now also have the option of receiving these notices each week and on festival days by signing up for the 10W constant contact email list on the right side of the 10W blog where it says "Please Join our Email List." The Song for the day is "Fire of Heaven/Altar of earth" by Matisyahu from the CD "Youth"  which can be purchased HERE
 

10w for August 15th, Mary, Mother of our Lord.

The following is a 10 minute worship for August 15th, Mary, Mother of our Lord. You can listen on the flash player below. You now also have the option of receiving these notices each week and on festival days by signing up for the 10W constant contact email list on the right side of the 10W blog where it says "Please Join our Email List." The Song for the day is "Magnificat" by John Michael Talbot from the CD "50 songs of Christmas"  which can be purchased HERE

 

Poem based on Luke 12:49-56

Let Peace Roll Down

            Like a river

Into my soul

            your soul

            our soul

Let it roll

            into the land

and people

            and heavens

The Lord has come to bring peace

and yet I know

            and God knows

that this peace brings a burning love

            a fire to ignite into love

            those who hear

it is a fire that keeps us

            from hiding

behind our false selves

It’s time to let it burn

It’s time to be true

and let God’s peace

            BURN

Opening litany, based on Psalm 82

Pastor: Our Lord God presides over all creation, even over our hidden gods, our treasures and possessions. Then our Lord God asks the question: "How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?

Congregation: As the children of God we are called to defend the cause of the weak and broken families, to maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. We are called to rescue the weak and needy and deliver them from the hand of the wicked who would take advantage of them.

Pastor: Those who seem to be the movers and shakers who control the money and bend the politicians in reality know nothing, they understand nothing.

Congregation: They walk about in spiritual darkness; all their foundations in this world are shaken.

Pastor: The world says to them, 'You are "gods"; but you are not “gods” but rather sons of the Most High and in the end will die like mere men; fall like every other ruler.

Congregation: Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations, all the nations are your inheritance.

fences

Sunday August 18^th, Jeremiah 23:  23 "Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD,  "and not a God far away?  24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD. When Jacob crossed the river and wrestled with the messenger of God on the other side, he realized that God was not just the God on his side of the river, but was also the God of the lands beyond the river.  Today we still tend to impart that kind of territorial thinking to God.  The territory is less geographic and more ideological, which to a large degree ends up being geographic.  It is singing “This Land is My Land” without the next phrase “This Land is Your Land”.  In the face of that, God declares that all of heaven and earth is the dwelling place of God.  We get the heaven part, it is the all of earth is God’s and not our’s that we have trouble with. Our responsibility to care does not stop at any border, whether geographic or ideological nor does it include borders or fences or “papers please”  or impossible paths to citizenship.  Our news continues to break along ideological lines with the implicit message to fear the other.   But our Lord is not just a God nearby.  Our Lord is also a God far away.  Our Lord is a God of all the children of creation and would prefer we stop acting like the spoiled one and grow up.    

antebellum argument

Monday August 19^th, Jeremiah 23: 29 "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? If our aim is to find Biblical support for our way of thinking then with a little practice we can hit the mark every time.  Remember the antebellum argument held for so long as proof that blacks were created to be the slaves of whites through the story of Noah, it stands as a good example of twisting the theology to justify a base human desire.   If our aim is to be true to the message God has given us in the word, then the mark that is left on us is one that hits our hearts, not someone else’s complexion.  If you haven’t been brought to your knees, either in joy or in remorse, in response to something that came to you through scripture lately, you’re probably not reading scripture enough for your own good.  If all you find is something someone else is doing wrong, you are not reading scripture correctly.  The word of the Lord is like a hammer that breaks down old prejudices as well as hearts of stone.

mix it

Tuesday August 20^th, Hebrews 12:  1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in.  The trouble with pioneers is we tend to take the trappings of our journey with Jesus and add them to the trappings of our society or culture and then add them to our own personal baggage and before long we have a church that is more burdened than enlightened by the past.  It is one thing to learn from those who have gone on before us and equate the lessons learned to help us in our journey, it is quite another to take parts of their journey, mix it with our culture and personal garbage and hang it around the necks of our children as an absolute.  How much good, but basically useless stuff is in your pockets or around your neck?  How about in your worship?  How about in your life?

tame the gospel

Wednesday August 21^st, Hebrews 12: When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!  There is a human tendency to tame the Gospel, at least for our lives.  That was the temptation Jesus was faced with in the wilderness.  Turn these stones into bread, jump down from this high tower, give them a circus and bread and they will gladly pay lip service to you, is the way the tempter put it to Jesus. The temptation is there for us also.  Give me a worship experience that is entertaining and short and filled with feel good phrases.  The Gospel basically boils down to Love God and Love Others, it sounds so simple but try doing it and you just might find yourself on the outs with more than just a few of your friends who might not be so sure “those people” are the ones we should be caring about.  The devil is in the details tis true.  But sometimes the temptation is to avoid the details and just feel good.  It is one thing to cry with the prophets of old to let justice roll down like an ever flowing stream, it is quite another to design the irrigation system.  

unattended fester

Friday August 23^rd, Luke 12: 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."  Intense passion of belief will bring about conflict, and it will tend to bring about divisions.  If left unattended, the division will only fester.  We are not called to lesson our passion for our beliefs, but we are also called to love one another, including those who think we are idiots because of our beliefs.  When I do premarital counseling I encourage couples to fight (I also emphasize that it is verbal sparring, not physical sparring).  My one rule is that they put more energy into making up than they did into the fight.  These passionate exchanges not only help clarify our beliefs, but often times come up with the most creative solutions.  This only works when there is an assurance that the foundation of love is stronger than any conflict.  

fight, and clear the air

Friday August 23^rd, Luke 12: 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."  Intense passion of belief will bring about conflict, and it will tend to bring about divisions.  If left unattended, the division will only fester.  We are not called to lesson our passion for our beliefs, but we are also called to love one another, including those who think we are idiots because of our beliefs.  When I do premarital counseling I encourage couples to fight (I also emphasize that it is verbal sparring, not physical sparring).  My one rule is that they put more energy into making up than they did into the fight.  These passionate exchanges not only help clarify our beliefs, but often times come up with the most creative solutions.  This only works when there is an assurance that the foundation of love is stronger than any conflict.  

Lord's good pleasure

Saturday August 24^th, Luke 12:  54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? Sometimes all those charts of the rapture enthusiasts just get in the way of seeing the big picture, it is the Lord’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.  We so want to find a scriptural interpretation that supports our prejudice that we fail to see how it affects our brothers and sisters in this world.  In the end of time no one is raptured off this earth, but, as it says in Revelation, Christ the Lamb comes to live with us.  Perhaps instead of destroying it for fun and profit, we should start cleaning the place now.  God is far more impressed with pristine beauty than oil spills and big bank accounts.  

poem based on Luke 12:32-40

I heard the man tell

anyone who would listen

He had it all figured out

with charts and grafts

and the book of Revelation

Dissected into number and verse

with each word and phrase

given a new meaning know only to

the one doing the talking

before me on the T.V. Screen

The time was figured to the

day, hour minute

so that these who follow such things

could…………………

Could what?

I heard the man tell

and all were listening

that he wasn’t sure

as he faced life’s end

square in the face

he didn’t know

and yet had faith in the God of love

his family had gathered to be with him

in his final hour

Met with peace, dignity, stories and even some laughter

by a man

who knew only

God’s love

and was ready

Two men standing on a hill

One filled with faith and questions

The other with only his will

opening litany based on Psalm 33:12-22

Pastor: The nations are blessed who follow the ways of the Lord and live as the children of God.

Congregation: For the Lord looks over all of humanity who live upon the earth. The Lord God who created them knows their hearts and considers all they do.

Pastor: Rulers and nations are not saved by their might and the expense of their military, no warrior escapes by their great strength. The greatest military technology is a vain hope for deliverance for despite its awesome power, it cannot save.

Congregation: But the Lord looks upon those who live in awe and wonder of the Lord and trust in the unfailing love of God to help them in times of need.

Pastor: We wait in hope for the LORD who is our help and our shield. It is in the Lord that our hearts rejoice, It is in the Lord that we put our trust.

Congregation: May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.

don't worry

Sunday August 11^th, Genesis 15:  2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."   Humans tend to think in a linier fashion.  It is not our fault really I suppose.  We are rather bound by this time thing.  Abe had received, and was fully aware of the promise of God.  Now his concern switched from God’s blessings to the process.  How would God pull this off.   God’s concern was how to get Abe to trust him that no matter what the time frame or process.  It is all too common a human tendency to talk of trusting in God and then acting as if we don’t.  We tend to ignore the idea that if God is in control, it will be good.  I often tell others to pray, trust God and then go ahead and get to work, trusting that God can work through them and what they are doing, pretty much the same advice Abe had for himself.  God did work through it and in the end the world was blessed with two brothers, Isaac, the beginning of the Hebrew race and Ishmael, the beginning of the Arabic people.  To open minded people God’s hand can be seen working through both.  It is hard not to worry at these times when we are suffering the consequences of 30 years of supply side economics, but worry is our way of, at least in part, being in control, or wishing we were.  So Pray and trust God, then get to work, don’t worry.  Or as the angels say, “fear not for the Lord is with you.” 

sand

Monday August 12^th, Genesis 15: 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  Abraham and Sarah waited for the promised son until they received that blessing late in life.  For them, the star in the heavens and the grains of sand analogy was something far off and beyond their comprehension.  Later the Hebrew people saw themselves as being the only sand and stars God was concerned about and the rest of humanity only as something other.  Then Jesus went to the cross for the salvation of all people, represented by all the stars and sands.  Paul still had to carry the argument forward however to include the Gentiles as the people of God.  God’s message through Paul continued to broaden the human definition of who was included in that stars and sand analogy.  Today we still are arguing about who is included in that stars and sand analogy.  Today, many who want to call themselves Christian want to exclude the sons of Ishmael, those whose gender orientation may be different, and whatever other category we can put someone in.  The call is to  point to say, not them.  They have a limited view of God’s promise.  Look up at the havens and count the stars if indeed you can count them.  Now get a telescope and look again and count them if you can.  Such is the kingdom of God.  It is not limited to a single constellation or a single beach, but includes all the heavens and all sand on all the beaches.  Humanities limited view of who God is capable of loving is one of the main things for which we need forgiving.