ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 10, 2019 Scripture: Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. Thought for the Day: As many of you know, this is a portion of my favorite passage in scripture. The word Renewing is how we translate the Greek word that could literally be translated as Into the Unprecedented -or- new. Paul appears to be suggesting that transformation comes by movement of the mind into this unprecedented or new perspective. It is there that we are better able to discern the will of God. Deepak Chopra writes, “I’ve worked all my life on the subject of awareness, whether it’s awareness of the body, awareness of the mind, awareness of your emotions, awareness of your relationships, or awareness of your environment. I think the key to transforming your life is to be aware of who you are.” I believe Paul would agree, for people do not move their mindset into something unprecedented or new without awareness of who they are currently and what external influences are upon their lives. You need to know your starting place, and that includes everything that influences and shapes you – family, work environment, the health of your body, the relationships you have, and what is your emotional state. Awareness is not something we fully achieve in this life, but an ongoing spiritual practice into which we can grow each day. Take a moment to quiet yourself and do an assessment – what emotions are just under the surface; what individuals bring you joy or stir up negative thoughts; what brings a smile to your face; what in your work or other activities is causing you stress; what physical issues are you facing? Awareness helps us really understand our current place, and it is only when we know our starting place that we can move into that unprecedented or new thing God is doing. Prayer: Provide me space and time, Merciful God, to simply reflect and do a full assessment — body, mind and spirit. Teach me to be honest with myself about where I am and what burdens my soul. Allow me to see where I am, and from there, the path forward. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2O0Xbh6
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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 9, 2019 Guest Writer: Rev. Sheila Gillette, from All Saints’ Sunday… Gracious God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, On this All Saint’s Day of remembrance, we lift up your faithful servants and cloud of witnesses that have gone to be with YOU this past year. O Lord, we thank you for these Saints who modeled lives of love as faithful witnesses of Jesus here on Earth. Names and lives that are forever written upon our hearts – with memories, tears, laughter and love. Strengthen our faith and devotion, Loving God. Enable us to live “love first lives” through the examples of holy living and victorious dying shown through the lives of these Saints. As Jesus loved, enable us to love with the same tenacity in our lives, modeling Jesus’ love against all adversity. In Jesus Precious Name we pray. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2JZHW75 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 8, 2019 Scripture: Matthew 9:36 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Thought for the Day: Jesus didn’t simply see a crowd, a throng of people, a mob. He saw the people and how troubled they were. Without some spiritual awareness and empathy, the needs and the suffering of humanity will be lost in the crowd. How do we gain an appreciation of the people who surround us, even when they are in mass? There are many options, but might I suggest a beginning place might be with the news you watch. If you hear your anchors use language like: Many, a lot or a great deal, you might want to turn it off. That’s not journalistic language. Journalism should strive to remove what is vague in the reporting so as not to play on people’s existing bias. And its not just the media, but so many other places in life. My concern is how our language seeks to categorize people who really do not fit in the category to which we are attempting to place them. We, without thinking, assign people to the mob without getting to know a single individual; without hearing a single story; without looking into a single set of eyes. Jesus probably had slightly better awareness than any of us, but we can push against the social structures that seek to consign individuals to some nebulous and ill-defined group from which they cannot easily emerge. Prayer: Provide me with eyes and ears and some spiritual attentiveness from which I can see the beauty of every human life around me, O Loving God…or at least help me do a better job today as compared to yesterday. Amen. -- via WordPress https://ift.tt/32wPnc5 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 7, 2019 Mid-Week Prayer: We complain about our team’s inconsistency or lack of big wins. We grumble when our cable is on the fritz or our internet is running slow. We fuss about the traffic on our way to work or the construction that slows us down. What does it mean to suffer, to know true affliction? Lord of Mercy, Lord of Compassion, awaken us to what is happening in the world just beyond our daily existence. Allow us to glimpse the struggles of those whose lives we cannot even begin to imagine. It is not a contest, a competition to see who is having a more difficult day. Yet too often we have allowed minor mishaps and solvable problems to consume us. Allow your Spirit to bring us to that place where we can see the possibilities of life, not only for our narrow understanding of community, but for the whole human family. This is the vision, the hope Jesus put before a group of self-serving leaders in the first century, and they killed him for it. This is the vision, the hope your Spirit is placing before us in this moment. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2Kdy61F ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 6, 2019 Scripture: Luke 16:14 The Pharisees, who were money-lovers, heard all this and sneered at Jesus. Thought for the Day: I read those words, and my first reaction is to shake my head and belittle such selfish and misguided people. Yet then I walk into my closet, and I am confronted by a plethora of clothes hanging there that have known very little use. How much is my life driven by money, and the fear of not having it.? I don’t know if I am having a love-affair with money, but there might be some puppy love or some unhealthy infatuation. Before making the Pharisees the poster-children of money-loving selfishness, it might be good for us to do some self-evaluation. I guess I shouldn’t put this on any of my readers. You all might be doing very well, so I will end this by letting you know that I shall spend some time reflecting and probably confessing. Prayer: Through your grace, O Lord, provide me the courage to do some self evaluation. Even when it causes some discomfort, help me to be honest where money is prioritized above you. Amen. _ via WordPress https://ift.tt/2NlyEnN ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 5, 2019 Scripture: Luke 16:20-21 At the rich man’s gate lay a certain poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Instead, dogs would come and lick his sores. Thought for the Day: The story (parable) of Lazarus is one of the deeply troubling stories found in scripture, unless you are a poor individual who finds yourself completely ignored and discarded by society. In the very next verse, Lazarus dies and is immediately taken to heaven. And of course, the rich man dies and is taken to the place of the dead where he is tormented. This is troubling to most of us who, if you make more than $800/year, are above the world’s poverty line. Yes, $800/year. Most of us, if not all of us, would be associated with the “rich man” in the story, including the writer of this devotional. And have I ever ignored someone along the road? The answer is an affirmative. Now I don’t want to dismiss the powerful discomfort provided in this story as so many others try to do. At the same time, I do believe Jesus is offering a larger teaching in this and the surrounding chapters of Luke’s Gospel. In the previous chapter, there are three parables that according to Dr. Amy-Jill Levine are all about counting. The first one is about a shepherd who has a hundred sheep and notices that one is gone. The next is about a woman who has ten coins and notices that one is gone. The third parable is the Prodigal Son, and it is a story where a father only has two sons but does not notice that one is not present at the party. In the story of Lazarus, a rich man has to literally step over a suffering individual on the street, yet does not even sack up his breadcrumbs for Lazarus. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus offers harsh words about divorce, and he gives no grace in that area. Any divorce, according to Luke’s Gospel, is unacceptable. Yet in that culture, a divorced woman was cast aside without any options for survival. Jesus is calling out another example in their society where human beings are being dismissed and forgotten. It is not some moral debate on divorce. Instead, at least in my reading, the whole section is a larger conversation about the value of every human being. Period! Jesus points out so many excuses among the religious elite that might sound reasonable on the surface, but at the end of the day, these so-called justifications are the tools of the powerful to provide theological cover to their arrogance and unjust behavior. So that you know, today’s devotional is an introduction to my sermon this coming Sunday. Stay tuned! Prayer: For everything in our social structure that invites us to dismiss a human being, I ask for your mercy, O Lord. So many voices and demonic forces that tug on us and invite us to undercut the value of people based upon gender, race, history, sexual orientation, economic level or nation of origin. When will we learn, God of Immeasurable Love? When will we awaken to the beauty of every sister and brother upon this planet? It is a question we ask, but it is also the challenge you put before us. Through Christ, help us stand against all that dismiss and devalues. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2NFQtwR ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 4, 2019 Prayer for the Week Guest Writer: Rev. Hannah Fitch In this season we are called to remember those who have influenced and shaped our faith. For those who taught us bible stories, showed us compassion, loved us when we wondered if we deserved it, we pause to be grateful. For the lives of those who have touched us and instilled in us a yearning to seek you and a curiosity to pursue you, we pause to remember. May we be grounded in the legacy of love and welcome that you intend for each of us. Open our eyes that we may see the ways we can live into this legacy, sharing and modeling lives of compassion. We are grateful for those who walk the path of faith alongside us. We ask for vulnerability to more deeply share our own doubts and fears and that together we may grow deeper in our understanding of a Love First Life. In the spirit of all the saints we offer ourselves to you, O Holy One. _ via WordPress https://ift.tt/2Cd1uAp ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS November 3, 2019 Scripture: Romans 12:5 In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. Thought for the Day: Recently, I had someone ask, “What would the church be without the people?” I cannot predetermine exactly what God would do, but I’m pretty sure the church would no longer be the church. Have there been people in the church who have been a headache? Yes! Have I been a headache to others in the church? Yes! But I would not change the composition of the church for anything. I love the funny, often odd, convergence of humanity…people who would otherwise never come alongside one another. In a world where children rarely get to spend time with adults who are not related or not paid to hang out with them, the church provides this wonderful opportunity to encounter and spend time with “old people” who love Jesus. And the opposite is true as well. Simply put, the church offers community that very few organizations and agencies offer. If for no other reason, it puts saintly people in front of us. Twice in the last couple of weeks I have said with a grin on my face, “I know I am to be the professional pastor of this church, but I have really come to love these people.” It’s true! Through times that are both good and hard, beautiful and tragic, we hangout with each other, support one another, love these magnificent and mixed up human beings who gather with us. Because of this community, I have been privileged to walk near, watch and even receive blessing from those who truly live as God’s saintly folks. Now by their very nature, they would not have owned the title. But again, that’s what makes (and made) their lives such a gift. Prayer: For all the saints living on earth and those living with you, Lord God, I offer a shout full of praise and thanksgiving. For all the holy lives my life has brushed against, I express my deepest gratitude. For all the folks like me just trying to figure out how to love a little like Jesus, and in their doing have blessed me, I say, “Thank you!” May your church continue to be the meeting place for those of us who need to encounter some of the diverse faithfulness found among those who are trying to be Jesus followers. Amen. DON’T FORGETYou get an extra hour
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AuthorRev. Bruce Frogge Archives
April 2024
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