ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: The Hebrew word translated here as acts is `asah, a word that has been translated as pressed, produces or brings about. An old preacher I knew translated it as habit, describing the habits of God as kindness, justice and righteousness. And if those are the habits of God, then shouldn’t they be the habits of those who follow in the ways of God? Habits seek to produce or bring about a specific outcome. When I think of habits on a more practical level, I think about the habit of brushing my teeth three times/day. I do this to bring about good dental health. I have a habit of exercising most every day with the hope of producing good physical health. If we are to suggest that kindness, justice and righteousness are habits, what are we hoping to produce or bring about? Maybe it is good social/societal health? Prayer: May the habits I choose to explore, O Lord, be habits that bring about health to my community. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/34fhOjC
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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: I was all excited about the LiveStream for Sunday morning as I was hosting a special guest, Dr. Joel Plaag. At the 11:00am Greeting, I was wearing an earbud so that I could hear Joel without getting feedback. All seemed good at first, but quickly a problem appeared. I left open a screen on the computer with the church’s website, the page with the LiveStream. Now understand, when I would talk to Joel, I would hear my own voice in the earbud about 3-4 seconds after I spoke it. That was irritating and only slightly confusing. But not realizing that I had left open the page with the church’s website, I started hearing something else. The LiveStream was about 30 seconds behind. So I not only had my voice 3-4 seconds behind, but I also had my voice from 30 seconds earlier. I’m sure there are many focused human beings who are able to clear all the other noise from their head and go forward. God bless them! I’m not one of them. It got me to thinking about all the trouble we create when the only voices we hear are our own voices. The man in the parable referenced above uses a personal pronoun more times in two verses than any other person in the Bible. The only conversation partners brought into the conversation are within himself. We can talk ourselves into some real foolishness, especially when we make no space for other voices. I have always said that a good decision can usually be made if we make space for five voices: 1. The Holy Spirit; 2. The saints from Christian history; 3. Our own life experience; 4. A good friend who will always be honest; 5. An individual who is wise. Too often we believe we’ve invited a lot of people into the conversation, when in fact, we are listening only to what’s in our own head. That’s what I experienced on Sunday, and it was only chaos inside my head. Trust me when I say that nothing good could come from such an incomplete set of voices. Prayer: Make room and time for as many helpful and healthy voices in the important decisions of life and faith. Lord God, the more I come to know the more I come to realize how little I know. Humble my heart so there is room for those who can bring a genuine and helpful voice to the important decisions that must be made. Amen. CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR: via WordPress https://ift.tt/2PYM5L8 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS IF YOU MISSED You can watch it by: via WordPress https://ift.tt/2Q1f9Bv ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: When Peter gave the answer to the question posed by Jesus, he had absolutely no idea what he was saying. We could be tough on Peter, but most everyone would have failed to understand the implications of suggesting that Jesus was the Messiah. Not only was Jesus about ready to put forth a definition that included suffering and death for him, but as we will hear in this morning’s sermon text, those who follow him must take up the cross as well. Even though this is the primary story we tell as followers of Jesus, it is as if every generation finds a creative way of de-sacrificing (if such a word existed) the cross that we are called to carry. As an old preacher once said, “If your cross isn’t held up with selfless love and covered with a little of your own sweat and blood, then it probably doesn’t represent what Jesus was advocating.” There are many books trying to explain why Christianity is declining numerically in the United States, but the idea few want to explore is the church’s failure to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Prayer: With everything else happening in the world, it is hard to think about giving more away. Yet you, Merciful God, have shown the magnificent power of love when it is given away unconditionally and even recklessly. May your call to take up the cross be more than a slogan, but a starting place of a life lived for you. Amen. SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP via WordPress https://ift.tt/3aue1jf ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: In the morning… Don’t you imagine that some people hear those words as if the writer is simply giving God a heads-up in regard to a scheduled prayer time the following day. “By the way, tomorrow I plan to add prayer to my already busy schedule.” That might be one way of reading those words, but I’ve got to believe that this person is speaking about a practice, a daily habit that is prayer. The Psalm begins with what sounds like a request, “Give ear to my words…,” but then it transitions to a declaration of faith. The author of the Psalm announces how God will hear what is offered. This is not someone speaking of a casual acquaintance, but a deep and trusted relationship – a relationship that has its origin in a daily gathering where there is both sharing and listening. I can’t imagine that such a relationship is created haphazardly and without consistency. Prayer: Thank you for always being available to us in prayer, O Lord. May your consistent presence not be taken for granted, but honored as we create a more consistent practice in our own lives. Amen. THANK YOU! via WordPress https://ift.tt/3kQ2v6w ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS O Spirit of Life and Love, O Provider of Wisdom and its many gifts, we pause amidst the heaviness of this moment. Many are feeling overwhelmed and torn between numerous potential responses of which none of them provide comfort or clarity. People are scared, yet the fear that often materializes has multiple causes and catalysts. It would be nice if we could bundle it all, neatly packaging it and leaving it in its entirety somewhere well beyond the grasp of our imaginations. Yet because most of us don’t have such capacity, we turn to you and the Holy Breath sent forth from you. In a moment of quiet, let us feel that flood of life pour over us and into us. May it confirm that none of us are alone in this time, and the love you have is not thwarted by a pandemic or even an economic downturn. May sleepless nights and stressful days make space for you, Merciful and Generous God. Provide us space to name all that burdens us in this time, even when our thoughts are not yet fully formed or cohesive. In that naming and space-making, decisions that emerge shall include you and the generations of wisdom woven into the fabric of faith. This is only the beginning of our prayer, but beginning has always been the best place to begin… Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/30WtmWY ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: Yesterday, the Men of Cypress Creek had their weekly prayer gathering on Zoom. Jesse Holster offered a wonderful study on Proverbs, and his words got me to thinking about this verse of scripture that was on a plaque I had (I lost it at some point along the way). This is not the same translation, but it reminded me of how necessary it is to keep watch over our hearts, and to do so with vigilance. Why? Do our hearts wander off? Well actually, they sort of do. Whether intentionally or accidentally, they can meander down a path that does not necessarily represent our highest ideals. We need to be vigilant when it comes to understanding the difference between our heart’s genuine needs vs our heart’s superficial wants. We our often distracted by selfishness clothed in religious language. We are too easily shaped by our fears and not by our hopes. Richard Rohr writes about the two halves of life, and though our lives our not evenly split chronologically between these two parts, it is a movement from a life lived for self to a life lived for a greater purpose. Some folks make the transition early in life, and others never do. Rohr writes, “In the second half of life we discover that it is no longer sufficient to find meaning in being successful or healthy. We need a deeper source of purpose.” There is a vigilance that is required for both those who are making the transition and those who have made the transition. Yet the author of the Proverb suggests that from the heart of those who are vigilant shall flow the springs of life. Prayer: I want to be a part of something so much greater than a life build around me. I want to bring you, Merciful God, more fully into my life. And as I do, I know your Spirit will shape and fill my heart with the love of Jesus – in the true work of serving others. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2PQDzxv ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but probably around 10 or so. I really wanted to watch the Perseid meteor shower that would be at its height after midnight. My mother reluctantly gave me permission to spend the night alone with my sleeping bag in the backyard. All the lights in the house were turned off, and though there was still some light pollution, we lived on the edge of the city and the sky was pretty good for observing meteors. Laying there alone, in the dark, I was a bit anxious. But for a few hours, I was also disappointed. I caught a couple of tiny meteors, but they were nothing like what others had described to me. But somewhere around 1:00am, a brilliant meteor shot halfway across the sky, changing colors, and then splitting into two meteors before disappearing. It was spectacular, yet terrifying. My heart rate went from rest to rapid in two seconds. It was a bit surprising to feel frightened as it was exactly what I hoped to see, yet there are times when awe feels very similar to fear. A lot of what happens internally is basically the same. The Psalmist was a poet who provided imagery of the breath-taking majesty that is creation. Some have translated this verse using the word fear (stand in fear…), but awe is, in my opinion, a much better translation. That night in which I saw as many as a hundred meteors, including a few dozen spectacular examples, produced something within me that felt a little like fear. The chemicals released into the blood stream had me pondering whether the security of my own bed was better. The difference between fear and awe happens in the pause, when one realizes that s/he has witnessed something greater than self, something only a handful of poets have come close to capturing. Prayer: Whether I experience it firsthand or are drawn into the experience through the poet’s pen, I seek to be awed. Holy One, your presence stretches beyond the edges of the universe and your love enfolds it all. Too often we become resistant and callus to what should leave us awestruck. Awaken us once again, O God, to the breath-taking beauty of life and love. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/3kzRjLf ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: Carl Sagan wrote, “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” When I first read those words, I found them to be dark and discomforting. There are too many things I don’t wish to see succumb to the rule, including, but not limited to: the human race, the creatures of this earth and hope. Extinction of anything that had life in God’s creation is the source of great grief, especially when we might have somehow participated in its elimination. The current pandemic has forced us to think about human survival, beyond what happens within our imagination while watching the big budget end of the world movies. Hope that is rooted in God, and not a hope that simply expects God to swoop in like a superhero and save the day, allows us to place our faith in what is eternal. God, however we might understand or picture this Holy Other, does not bow to the concept of extinction. Love and Light shall exist even when we go the way of the dinosaurs, yet I claim that those who known love and experienced light find hope in the One who is eternal. Prayer: Keep me connected to you, Eternal One, for that connection will keep my hope alive no matter what might come my way. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2PFHxsH ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS via WordPress https://ift.tt/2DUeMWw |
AuthorRev. Bruce Frogge Archives
April 2024
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