Holy and Immediate God,
urgently calling us out of ourselves
to turn around and see you,
help us see the urgency of your coming.
In this bleak midwinter – or midsummer –
let ‘the beginning of the Good News’ grow in us.
Guide us as we answer John the Baptizer’s call to
prepare the way of the Lord
in our own hearts,
in our world,
in your will.
Amen.
There’s a lot on our minds these days, Holy One.
It boils up, spills over.
We want everyone to mind –
mind their own business,
mind their Ps and Qs,
mind their manners.
To be in their “right” mind.
Those aren’t bad things to care about; each has its time and place.
But they aren’t the only ones; not always the most important.
Forgive us for minding way too much about some things, and not nearly enough about others. Remind us of another way to mind.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote. That mind. Let the mind of Christ be in us, we pray. Amen.
Lord, remember the time I was picking crabapples for jelly, and there was this squirrel right above me in the tree? The branch had bent under the squirrel’s weight, and the squirrel was hanging upside down to reach the crabapples at the tip of the branch. I heard you say, “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb – that’s where the fruit is.”
And Lord, remember how, when I was struggling to discern your will, not sure which way to go, you sent a friend to tell me, “Put your hand on the knob. If it’s a door God wants you to go through, it will open. But you have to put your hand on the knob first.”
Holy One, give me courage to go out on a limb for you. Give me strength to put my hand on the doorknob, knowing you are the One who opens doors. Give me grace to move forward into your will, as your own beloved child. Amen.
Lord, I cringe when someone says,
“You must be so proud ____!”
Am I proud? I thought I was being grateful. I didn’t think I was bragging, but that’s how it came across.
Once more, you remind me how I often assume privilege I didn’t earn.
You remind me how my life of privilege makes others’ lives harder –
not because they have to work harder
or be smarter
or do more
to get the same recognition I get,
but because
when I blithely go about my business without a care in the world,
I’m creating a world that doesn’t care.
And that is not what you call me to do.
You call me to care.
Not from a position of privilege, nor even from solidarity,
but from under the table,
where all of us are hungry
for just a crumb of grace.
Have mercy, Lord. Have mercy. Amen.
Lord,
Sometimes, when the waves are pushing against the boat,
I get distracted by the wind,
and am surprised by the loon calling out.
“Look up!” the loon cries,
as the eagle swoops down, skims the water,
and flies up again, something caught in its talons.
The waves push against the boat,
and my doubt pushes against my faith.
Look up!
“If it’s you, Lord, command me to come to you.”
If?
“Come”, you say. “You have faith enough. It only takes a mustard seed’s worth to move a mountain, after all.”
Lord, save me. Amen.
Preached at Hilltop UMC Mankato, June 25, 2023
Let’s start with a Pop Quiz! This one is called, “Who Said It?” These are all quotes by famous theologians, on the topic of judging others. Ready? Here we go!
Question number one:
Lord,
You’ve indulged me in this liminal space for a while now,
patiently letting me get my bearings
before I step off the threshold between what was and what will be.
When you lie awake at night, what is it you worry about?
Your children?
Your parents?
Your ever-growing “To Do” list?
The bills you need to pay?
Whether you have enough to feed and clothe your family, buy gas, pay your taxes, make your car payment, pay the rent or the mortgage? Save for retirement?
We are often preoccupied with the basic question: Do I have enough? And if not, how can I get more, so I will have enough? A recent study shows that most of us worry about money. A lot.
Continue reading
Each year, churches look for ways to deepen faith during the season of Lent. Quite often, this means reading a book together, or adding a midweek worship service. For some, however, these practices are simply “more of the same,” and do not lead to deeper faith. Sometimes we need to engage all of our senses to discover God’s direction as we learn to follow Christ.
So this year, some folks have signed up to explore with me how our five senses are reflected in scripture. We will also consider how spiritual practices engaging those senses can bring us to a deeper understanding of God’s love for us, as we seek to live a more Christ-like life. Each week, we will focus on one of the five senses. We will read about and discuss a miracle of Jesus related to that sense, and I will introduce to a spiritual practice to try during the following week. REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED. But stay tuned for future offerings like this.
Continue reading
Advent 3C – December 12, 2021
VIdeo
This is Gaudete Sunday! It’s the Latin word for ‘rejoice’ taken from the first word in the New Testament reading for today. Rejoice in the Lord always we just heard Paul say to the Philippians – Again I say Rejoice! And why? Because the Lord is near.
Last week we heard John the Baptist calling us to a ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” as he cried out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. And why? Because the Lord is near!
You just heard the gospel reading for today, describing John’s ministry in greater detail. As he called people to repentance, they had some questions about how, exactly, to go about that. Yes, we know repenting means turning away from one thing so we can turn toward something else, but how do we do that?
So John gives some specific examples. He encourages his listeners to look for ways to make things right and fair, to be generous with what we have, so that others who don’t have anything can be clothed and fed and cared for. He starts out calling people a brood of vipers, but ends up proclaiming the good news that … the Lord is near!
We are three fourths of the way through the season of Advent. And while we might think of these four weeks of preparation as leading up to Christmas, our focus should probably be looking forward to Christ’s coming again in glory as much as remembering his first coming in human form.
In fact, during medieval times, the four Sundays of Advent had nothing to do with Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love – the themes of Advent in the middle ages were Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. Put that in your Christmas stocking! The truth is that Advent simply means Arrival. We look for Jesus to come among us, to be God with us – Emmanuel. So today, we hear the Old Testament prophet Zephaniah describe what that will be like, how God with us changes everything, and why God wants to be with us in the first place.
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. (Zephaniah 3:14-20)
Rejoice! Exult! I wonder if we even know what those words mean anymore. The short definition of “exult” is to ‘feel or show triumphant elation or jubilation.’ Try explaining that to a kindergartener.
Let me give you an example: It’s the sound you make and the way you act when a player from your favorite football team intercepts a pass and runs it in for a touchdown. Especially if that touchdown puts your team in the lead.
You exult when you watch your child ride a bike unassisted for the first time. I exult every time I get a sermon written in time to preach it. It’s that “Woohoo!” feeling of gratitude that things are good – really good! – and we are filled with joy and gladness we can’t contain. So why does the prophet Zephaniah, who has spent so much breath telling the nation of Israel how bad things are going to be for them because of their disobedience, suddenly do a 180 turn and start telling us to rejoice?
Because God has taken away the judgments against you. The first two chapters of Zephaniah are all about the punishment God intends for those who have rejected God. It’s pretty dire. A lot worse than being called a brood of vipers. Then, suddenly, here in chapter three, God does an about face – God repents. Now hear me out, I’m not spouting heresy here. There are several places in scripture where God repents:
Do you notice what all this repenting has in common? God gets disgusted with humans who have rejected God’s love, and decides to destroy them – then repents, or changes direction, and shows mercy instead. You could almost say that God is the model of repentance. God shows us how to repent of our sin, by repenting of punishment and turning toward mercy and life.
Here in Zephaniah, that’s exactly what God does. Zephaniah describes the Day of the Lord as a time of doom and destruction, but God says, “On that day, you won’t be ashamed … no longer will you be haughty on my holy mountain … no one will make you afraid,” (3:11-13) because God will shower God’s people with love and forgiveness. And like everything else God does, this new message of love and joy goes over the top.
“Rejoice,” Zephaniah says, “God is in your midst, so you do not need to be afraid anymore.” Your judgment, your punishment for all the ways you have abandoned God or ignored God or rebelled against God – all that is cleared away. You have no reason to be afraid, because God is in your midst. God is with us. And that brings us to my favorite verse in the whole Bible, and the central idea of this passage. It is a five-fold blessing:
All that rejoicing and exulting Zephaniah tells us to do back in verse 14 is merely a reflection of God’s rejoicing and exulting. All our loud singing is simply an answer to the singing God does over us. Have you ever considered that God sings? And when God sings, it’s because of you?
Ponder that for a moment. You are so precious to God, so deeply loved, that God rejoices over you and sings your name, even as God is in your midst, right beside you, God with you. I know the first time this verse hit me, it wasn’t with the realization that God cared so much for me, it was the fact that God sings! And if God sings, and we are made in God’s image, that’s why we sing. Not for our own pleasure, but for God’s.
It has only been with time and deeper understanding that I have come to realize it isn’t the singing that’s important here. It’s the love. Sometimes that love actually prohibits us from indulging in the pleasure of singing – as it has over these past months of pandemic restrictions. But if love is more important that anything else in this passage, surely we can express that love for God and for one another in other expressions of joy, at least for now.
And that brings us to the final part of this passage, this message of hope, peace, and joy for the third Sunday in Advent. Finally, we come to God’s promises, God’s pledge to do what God says he will do.
In the Day of the Lord, the day of rejoicing and exultation, God says “I will…”
I will remove disaster.
I will deal with your oppressors.
I will save the lame.
I will gather the outcast.
I will change your shame into your fame.
And best of all, because God is with us,
“I will bring you home.”
Isn’t that exactly where we want to be? At home with God, as God is at home with us? This is what matters. This is what Advent is preparing us for – the time when time is no more, when all the promises of the ages have been fulfilled, and God brings us home.
Always. Be. Reforming.
Processing with God: Narrative Lectionary, Liturgy, Prayers
The Cricket Pages
Reasonable Living in a Time of Chaos
Sean Dietrich's column on life in the American South.
Wesleyan Faith Today
A daily dose of God’s touch in a minute...
Honoring God, Encouraging People
Life from the inside out.
Looking at the Contemplatives and Mystics
The website of historian Chris Gehrz
Reaching all people, impacting lives!
Thoughts Shared from the heart.
Philosophy. Theology. Everything else.
renewed compassion
What is going to happen?
A pastor sings 