You stoop so low

A prayer based on Luke 10: 25-37, with thanks to Ernest T. Campbell‘s “Where Cross the Crowded Ways”.

How far you stoop to reach us, Holy God.
You in your glory,
submitting to our weakness and sinfulness.
You whose presence shines with the light of truth,
yet you do not let our doubts and confusion
keep you from loving us.
You with life in all its fullness,
entering into our dead ends with resurrection power.

This is mystery
more than we can understand
with minds shaped by the limits of this world.

We thank you for your patience and perseverance,
for your steadfast love and faithfulness,
that draws near,
and attends to our wounded spirits,
and carries us to a place of rest and healing.

We thank you for blessings that have come to us in disguise:
for illness that has shifted our centre of trust from self to you;
for disappointments that caused us to change course
and in the changing discover new and deeper and truer life;
for problems we have not been able to solve that have developed in us courage and new strength.

Deepen our faith
that we may receive the grace you offer
in such back-door mercies.

We pray for those who are feeling battered and bruised
by their relationships at work;
for those whose home life robs them of dignity and confidence;
for those who have been shoved aside, left uncared for, unloved;
for those whose poverty of body or spirit causes others to pass them by.

Show us those to whom you would have us be neighbour.
Then grant us courage to risk and give and love
in your name.

You have promised that you will guide us in paths
that lead to life.

Send your Spirit among us
that we may move beyond
our fears and our doubts
and become the kind of people
whose lives shine the light of
your glory
and love
into this neighbourhood,
in this city,
in the world you have given to us.

We ask in Jesus’ name.

A prayer for Palm Sunday

A prayer based on Psalm 116 (The Message)

 

We thank you, God, because you are good

and your love never quits.

When we are pushed to the wall,

you answer from the wide open spaces,

summoning us into your freedom.

Through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection,

You come to our side,

you walk with us every step of the way,

and we learn not to be afraid.

When we are on the cliff-edge,

ready to fall, you grab us,

your Spirit holds us fast.

Most compassionate God,

You are our strength.

You are our song.

You are our salvation.

O God, our God,

we lift you high in praise.

Your love never quits.

The role of the “church office” in a missional church

In my experience in traditional mainline churches, the “church office” often functions as the hub of congregational life. People go to the office to get information from the secretary and to give information that they need to get distributed. They expect that they’ll be able to see the minister in his or her office, which is usually located close the the secretary’s office. They book rooms for their programmes through the office.

Technology changes some of that. People distribute information through email, texting, blogs, websites, social media sites. However, as with many things related to ‘church’, the mindset of many people shifts very slowly. They still think of the church as located in the building.

In my preaching, I’ve been sharing Marva Dawn’s saying: “You can’t go to church. You are the church wherever you go.” I’ve been thinking lately that that should be reflected in the amount of time I spend in the office. I prefer to work on the sermon and worship service at home, where there aren’t many interruptions. However, I have been heading in to the church office every day, thinking that I need to be available for people. That’s where they will come to find me. It’s time to change that mindset.

If the church is wherever the people are, I ought to be spending more of my time where the people are, not sitting in an office. If the church needs to be out in the neighbourhood, that’s where I need to be. People can reach me by phone and by email.  They don’t need to come into a building to communicate with me. In the past couple of weeks, I have been more intentional about being out of the office more often, connecting with people outside of the building. I have been making more phone calls to keep in touch with people, not just those with medical and aging issues.

It’s not rocket science, of course. I probably should have been doing this ages ago. Others have figured this out long before me. Certainly, in my experiences in small and rural churches, the church didn’t revolve as much around the office in the building. What’s new for me, though, is that I’m trying to frame what I do in a missional way — intentionally de-centering the life of the church from the building. The building is a resource. It’s certainly handy to have for some activities. It’s just not where the church is – especially not a missional church.

 

A prayer for the church in a time of scarcity

You are the God who creates the heavens and the earth

- galaxies of stars and planets, more than we can number

- flowers and birds and animals and fish more varied than we can fathom

- human beings in such rich diversity and yet each one known and named and cherished by you.

You are the God who takes us to the high places of blessing in Christ Jesus our Lord,

calling us to enter into the celebration of your lavish gift-giving,

offering us strength for the journey,

ushering us into your reign of extravagant love,

all by the exuberant power of your Holy life-giving Spirit.

Glory to you, generous God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

Take from us all fear that

you will not provide enough

enough jobs
enough money
enough courage
enough people.

 

Move us into your abundant, overflowing grace

so we live as trees planted

by the waters of life,

rooted and grounded deep in your love,

bearing fresh fruit every month,

never dropping a leaf,

always in blossom,

full in the fullness of God.

 

We ask in the name of Jesus,

whose love for us broader than the galaxies of the cosmos,

and more plentiful than the flowers of the fields

and deeper than our deepest troubles.

Amen.

Christians on Television

Why is it that Christians on television shows are typically depicted as cruel, emotionally disturbed prudes? Another role they get (although much less often than ‘evil monster’) is that of kindly, elderly sage  who offers one or two bits of advice but who is otherwise pretty ineffectual in anything important. Oh yes, and Christian ministers/priests get to preside at some weddings, smiling and essentially innocuous.

Consider the implications of this when you realize that these images are the only exposure many people get to Christianity and the Christian Church,

A few years ago now I overheard a conversation among some adolescent boys about church. “It’s boring!” was the consensus. None of them had ever been to a worship service, much less participated in the life and ministry of a local congregation. But they knew for certain that the church is boring.

I remember hearing about a waitress who said that she hated serving the ‘after worship Sunday crowd’ because they were the cheapest tippers.  How do you spend at least an hour worshipping our extravagantly loving God who blesses us with an overabundance of grace and mercy and hope and compassion and beauty and joy and freedom and purpose, and then go out and be stingy with a someone who serves you your meal?

I have heard some church members wonder why people don’t want to ‘come to church’. Obviously, before those people would even consider that, we have a lot of work ahead of us to overcome the negative perception many unchurched people have of who we are.

“I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

 

Wonderful love

A prayer based on Genesis 32 and John 15, with thanks to Walter Brueggemann, who said it much better than I could in “A people with many secrets” in Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, p. 25.

We sing of your wonderful love, O God:
we cherish your love that seeks us out when we are lost;
we grab hold of your steadfast love has promised never to let us go,
even if our world should fall apart;
we reach for your forgiving love that takes our dead ends
and gives us a new beginning.

We sing of your wonderful love, O God,
for you have commanded us
to make ourselves at home in it,
to abide in your Son,
as your Son abides in us.

Since you are the One from whom no secrets can be hid,
we bring to you the truths that hover
just beneath the surface of our lives:
the wounds that will not heal;
the grief that keeps rolling over us;
the feelings of guilt and shame that bind our hearts;
the questions and doubts
that keep us from trusting you completely.

Promise-maker, promise-keeper,
hear the truth we tell
in our moments of risk and honesty with you.

You have promised that such truth-telling
will set us free.
Bless us, then, with your holy freedom;
make us new,
in the image of your Son,
the way, the truth, the life we seek.

Amen.

Immerse Us Again

Love divine, all loves excelling,
love that creates us in your image,
love that meets us in our brokenness,
love that pulls us out of deadly traps
and sets us in the wide expanses of your salvation:

you we worship;
you we praise;
you we love.

You know the ways we wander from your love:
the fear that drives us to make our world small and manageable;
the selfishness that shuts down our hearts;
the arrogance that limits our reach towards the ones you love.

Immerse us again in your lavish grace.
Bathe us once more in the cleansing stream of
your truth.

Send your Spirit flowing through the dried-up, worn-out places.
Bring life — your life
your wondrous, abundant life,
for we pray in the name of Jesus,
the Way, the Truth, the Life,
your Word made flesh,
your Love.  Amen.