March 7, 2015 FAITHFUL

Faith – No Magic Charm

Does enjoying my faith imply protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous  fortune?  No.  It did not stop my husband from dying prematurely.  It did not stop a careless truck driver from going through a red light and nearly killing me.  

My faith is not a magic charm, like garlic to chase away vampires.  

It is, instead, what sustains me in the midst of all the normal joys and tragedies of the ordinary human life.  It is faith that helps my grief to be creative, not destructive.  It is faith that kept me going  through the pain at the very portals of death and pulled me, whether I would or no, back into life and whatever works still lied ahead.

From Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections from writings by Madeleine L’Engle

March 6, 2015 JOURNEY

“The path of life is a journey, like a cold winter day or a warm summer night."

Shared by Rosanna Tempel

March 5, 2015 HOME

HOME

Six years ago this month I bought my first house after 30+ years of parsonages and apartments.  I use the word "house" and not "home", because every place I lived in became my home, whether I owned it or not.  I had been thinking about "home" for several years before that. What is home?  What does it mean to be "at home?"  Is home a specific place or a state of mind?

I found some help with these questions from a couple of people whose works I admire.  In a  beautiful chapter in his book, Learning to Fall, The Blessings of An Imperfect Life, Philip Simmons writes about his house, and others in his New Hampshire town, most of which are never really finished.  He sees these unfinished houses as a symbol of our unfinished lives - with always something more to be done, projects underway, plans for future improvements - all delayed by lack of money or time or motivation or health or something else.  We get used to this state of incompleteness, or unsettledness, and for Simmons that's not a bad thing.  "Only so far as we are unsettled is there any hope for us. Let us remain unsettled, therefore, in order that we may truly live." (44). The present moment is all that we have - that is the unfinished house in which we live.

 According to Servite Sister Joyce Rupp, our pilgrim hearts are always on a journey, as we make our way home to God.  In this life we are all "on loan" to each other, and we cherish this life, and all that comes with it - but it is not our final destination.  There is a restlessness in our spirits that longs for the home of God's heart. Knowing that we are  "on loan" to each other, we take this journey together - and as with any journey, we enjoy the scenery, and the company, even as we anticipate the destination.

I am glad I bought my house, with its abundance of joys and challenges. It makes me feel more settled in my work as an interim pastor. And yes, I have a list of projects that will probably never get done. But whether I live here for one more year, or 20 more, I know that I'm still a pilgrim, and part of me will always be unsettled.  The words of St. Augustine come to mind here:  "You have formed us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

May your Lenten journey be truly blessed!

Shared by Pastor Jerrie Shepard Matney, Baptist interim ministry

March 4, 2015 NEW

You are the God who makes all things new.

We gladly raise our voices and move our lips

    to acknowledge, celebrate, and proclaim

           your staggering newness.

As we do so, we hold in our hearts

    deep awareness of all the places where your newness

                                    is no visible, and

                                    has not come.

     Our hearts link to many places of wretchedness

             short of your newness.

             We picture our folks at home,

                sick, in pain, disabled, paralyzed

                 and no newness yet.

We know up close the deep wretchedness

    of poverty, of homelessness, of hunger

     and no newness yet.

Move our hearts closer to the passion of our lips.

Move our lips closer to your own newness.

Work your newness in hidden, cunning ways among us.

Move us closer to your bodied newness in Jesus,

      newness of strength come in weakness

       newness of wisdom come in foolishness.

Draw us from the wretchedness we know

      to his scarred, bloody wretchedness

      that is your odd entry of newness into our life.

We pray in the name of his suffering newness.  Amen.

From  the book Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth: Prayers by Walter Brueggemann

March 3, 2015 DREAM

DREAM 

Believe in the beauty of your dreams. I feel this is a concept to live for in your life. If you cannot conceive of a single dream or goal, you are not then able to strive for anything. 

Just this past week, I heard a motivationalspeaker, Hill Harper, who is now best known as an actor on CSI but started his career in Harvard Law School, played basketball with Barack Obama long before he became famous as a president and Harper has started his own foundation under the concept of "Manifest your own Destiny". 

Key point to his talk was though he could have been a well paid corporate lawyer, he followed his dream of acting to become a happy, productive, successful individual in life This is a great concept to live by since you then have control over your life's journey that will twist and turn based on the choices you make, but they are your choices alone. I am a firm believer in individual choice as nobody else can stand in your shoes and know what you as an individual is facing, though input and guidance is useful. 

The first line of this paragraph is attributed to another great individual, Eleanor Roosevelt, "believe in the beauty of your dreams". 

How does God fit into this concept for life? 

I believe God presents opportunity in his own way and the bible is useful in giving guidance by examples and literature, but ultimately, the individual must choose their own path for life. Having a life long dream and finding a way to fulfill it, leads to a better individual and better community experience in the end. I even believe that most individuals lives could at some point today in our world qualify for additional chapters in the bible if we could still add to it...being relevant today as it was then in many ways...the future really does belong to those that believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Shared by Heather Coyle

March 2, 2015 GO

I was invited to take a walk and photograph things that were imperfect, or ugly, or hard.  Then to pray, reflecting on these images, to see if I could find the beauty or the grace hidden within them.  Then compose a “Beatitude” or blessing.

It was winter and very cold when I came upon this wooden walk through some wetland.  It was icy, slippery. Some brave soul had walked this way before me, leaving just enough traction for me to very tentatively take a few steps into nature’s wilderness. 

After prayer and reflection I wrote “Blessed are the pioneers who make a way in the wilderness and create footprints for future generations to follow.” 

Like so many before us, we have been invited to “go.”  Sometimes that is pretty scary, as we don’t know what lies ahead. The pathway is not always easy.  But unlike Abraham and Sarah, we know that Jesus has walked this road before us…. even through suffering, betrayal, and death.  And so with gratitude and faith we take a step into the world… trusting in God’s future.

Pastor Marie C. Jerge, Lutheran pastor and former Bishop of Upstate NY

March 1, 2015 WORSHIP

WORSHIP

We need not hide ourselves from you,

before whose justice no one can stand.

Your mercy was proclaimed by the apostles and the prophets,

and shown forth to us in Jesus Christ.

You give your law to guide us,

and you promise new life for all,

That we may live to serve you among our neighbors,

in all we say and do.

(above from the “Book of Common Worship” 1993. p. 135.)

It is commonly believed that worship of God in the earliest Christian churches took place in homes (house churches).  People gathered as communities of faith where they could and did experience God through varied and regular practices. They shared meals, baptized new adult members (after a lengthy time of teaching and testing), read Scripture, listened to God speaking through one another, experienced healing, and prayed and sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving together.

While some of these rituals were not necessarily worship of God per se, the total sum of them were understood as means for Christians to serve the Divine One. This was their context for worship as God called them together in those days. What similarities and differences do you see in the early church compared to our context today?

As we consider worship, we read that some of the earliest acts of worship of God mentioned in the Hebrew Bible really were quite striking. We see rather ordinary people living out their often ordinary lives who, after seeing or hearing from God by way of messenger or sign or wonder, fall face down in shock, reverence, and awe. Somehow they know that their lives are never to be the same again and transformation takes place. Life is no longer just about them and what they want. Confidence is increased, sight is given or restored, healing takes place, and there is newfound hope and mission - both for themselves as well as their families. Somehow it is also God’s plan that through them the whole world be saved. God is glorified in these responses and true worship happens.

In these ancient stories we see that lives truly were transformed as hearts and minds were slowly and sometimes even quickly changed. Rather than being paralyzed by doubt or held nearly as captive to fear, they were instead in the process of learning to trust more in God and have faith in his love and grace extended. Have you ever experienced anything life changing like this?

The Anchor Bible Dictionary describes Christian worship as, “the reverent homage paid to God in Christ in the context of a Christian assembly.” At Trinity we gather each week to partake in practices and rituals very similar to those of our ancient spiritual ancestors. In all that we do as our worship (both inside as well as outside the church building), we remember times and places where God has revealed himself in the past and we are led to respond with obedient living in the present. God in Christ is lifted up in word and song, and we resume our far lower and more rightful place as humble servants who seek justice for the weak in the world.

In all of this, that is, as we encounter life’s many sacred times and places both near and far, what we are really doing is letting our response to God help us “reactualize” those moments in our own imaginations in the present. This is what I think it means to have truly worshiped God versus merely going through the motions. And so let us pray that God will enable our deepest and most sincere worship in this season of Lent. Amen.

Shared by Michael Boyd