Prayer - Sunday, November 3, 2008

Our hearts are saddened by the news from Mumbai … bloodshed and tears … families torn apart … the depths of human hatred, O God, stun us when seen so clearly …

We pray for the victims and their families … we pray for the terrorists who see the world from a perspective we cannot understand …

We pray this morning for the nations of India and Pakistan … and we pray that religious leaders in both lands will calm fears and ease anger …

In this Season of Advent, O LORD, we’re reminded of the world in which our LORD was born … a world so similar to ours, the human penchant for fear and prejudice remains a constant in our stories …

We cry out, O LORD, for your help and your healing.
We cannot do this on our own …
Without divine counsel, the human heart curls itself around the worst instincts and darkest thoughts …

All of us, LORD,
Need your Advent grace … the gift of love, and peace, and kindness.
Help us, in this place,
Covenant on the Corner,
To embody the virtues of your Kingdom …
The goodness of your governance …
May the world see something of value in us …
Not our words,
Nor our buildings, but the way we love …
The way we forgive and the way we welcome …
Barring no one … receiving everyone as brother or sister …
Bringing down the walls others raise up …
Building bridges over the chasms others are so quick to dig …

Help us, we pray, to read our Bibles well …
To follow Jesus with new devotion …
To open our hearts all the more to his influence …
To be the light of the world and the salt of the earth …

We pray today for our families …
For our fiends …
We pray for the Presbyterian Church, here and around the world …
We pray for religious leaders everywhere: for priest and rabbi, for pastor and imam …
We pray for President Bush …
For President-elect Obama …
For Governor Schwarzenegger
For Mayor Villaraigosa and all their families …

In this remarkable season of Advent, O God, help us see the power and the glory of your grace … Gabriel’s visit to Mary, her perplexity and Joseph’s uncertainty … the distress of the inn keeper to make room for one more family … the surprise of the shepherds to be included …

LORD, widen our hearts … give us large thoughts to think …
And large deeds to do …

We pray in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …

Mashed Potatoes

An Ode to Mashed Potatoes …

Let me count the ways I love thee …
The common tator … a tuber … from the ground …
Just like you and me …
Maybe we feel something in common with this common ground thing …

They’re not picked, like apples or pears …
They’re dug …
Like good music … or hangin’ out with folks we love …

Lots of different sizes … and colors … in a lot of different places …
We do have a lot in common, don’t we?
With the humble potato …

Peel ‘em … if ya’ want …
But I like to leave the skins on …
Adds texture … as it should be … the whole potato …
As God intended.

Into a pot of water …
Turn on the heat … lots of good things need a little heat …
Cook ‘em not too hard …
Test ‘em with a fork …
Drain ‘em and put ‘em back into the pot …

And now the good part …
A couple of butter chunks …
A generous splash of cream … I mean: be generous …
Maybe even some cream cheese …
A little horseradish?
Rosemary?
Thyme?
Salt and pepper …

And a little elbow grease …
Smash and mash these remarkable gifts from God …
Not too much, just enough …
To blend it all together …
Taste to your heart’s content …
That’s what I love about cooking …
We get to sample everything before you do.

Can it get better?
You bet …
On the plate they go …
A fork-full will satisfy all your desires for comfort …
Just like home …
But like all good things … these good things go well
With a chorus of other good things ….
Gravy …
Giblet gravy …
Corn and slabs of carefully sliced turkey, neat and precise … though I prefer the dark meat … a tad bit unruly …
Cranberry relish on the side …
And how about the country cousin, the sweet potato … with its famous hat,
The marshmallow … all white on the inside, with golden trim …
And who knows what else …

Start with potatoes, and who knows where it’ll end.

But start with potatoes …
A very common thing …

And it will end well …

As all good things do …

Happy Thanksgiving …





© Tom Eggebeen, Los Angeles

November 23, 2008 Prayer

Eternal God, creator of the heavens and the earth … you are as close to us as the breath we breath … you are all things for us … you are our faith, our hope and our love.

Thank you, O God, for the gift of faith …
To have something beyond ourselves in which to trust …
Something greater than the things of this world on which to rely …
That when death comes a-calling … when we draw our final mortal breath … Jesus will be at our side … he is the Master of death because he is the LORD of Life!
All praise, honor and glory to you, O God.

As the days of our life unfold, by your Holy Spirit, help us to live a large and loving life … to embrace high ideals and sign on with movements and organizations devoted to the care of your good earth, the wellbeing of every child, justice for all, and peace for the world.

Help us to be faithful to the church … not just members on a list somewhere, but Christians to the core … followers of Jesus … filled with delight in his name, eager to serve, ready to bear witness … for he is the true light of the world … the peace that surpasses all common understanding …

Thank you, O God, for the gift of hope …
As we give ourselves away…
As we pray and study …
Serve and sacrifice …
That our labor is not in vain …
Time never wasted …
Love spent well and wisely …

Thank you for the gift of love …
That which sweetens all things … forgives all things … believes all things, endures all things …
Your love, O God, for us …
Our love for one another …
And those who love us …

For these things, O God …
For faith, hope and love …
We give you our thanks …

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come …

A Peacemaker Implant

A friend of mine is having a pacemaker implanted. My friend will have a simple outpatient procedure – he’ll be home in no time, and up and running, good as new.

This morning, I turned to a blog and read a headline – about a peacemaker, but I read pacemaker instead, until I read it again, and then I thought – that’s a thought worth writing about!

Every time we read our Bible, every time we invite Christ into our hearts, every time we gather with God’s people in the solidarity of worship and work, God does a procedure – God implants a peacemaker so that our heart can beat regularly in rhythm with Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Our greatest need is for peace – in all dimension: for the world, for our communities and neighborhoods, for our homes, schools and places of work, and perhaps most importantly, deep within our spirit – the peace that only Christ can give (John 14:27), a peace that surpasses every version offered by the world (Philippians 4:7).

My friend would never think of trying to implant a pacemaker by himself. A do-it-yourself project would be foolish and dangerous. Nor is the Peace of Christ a do-it-yourself project – we can only do it in the company of others, in the fellowship of faith, with good instruction and mutual prayers. Do not try this at home!

If my friend can step into the doctor’s office and be on his way home again in an hour or two, the implantation of a peacemaker for our heart is life-long process wherein we constantly surrender our life to Christ, constantly pray for the Holy Spirit, constantly read our Bibles and continually learn more about God. The invitation to follow Jesus is not for a few days, a year or two, or even the duration of this life, but forever, in season and out of season, when we feel like and when we don’t.

And why do we do this? Because we’re descendents of Seth in a world of crass opportunism, empty promises and the silly and violent boasting of Lamech (see Genesis 4:23).

For the sake of the world, we go to our Good Physician for a peacemaker implant – to keep alive the greatest reality – the truth that sets us free from pretense and fruitless quests - the steadfast love of God - the rock of our life, the immovable foundation – our hope and our peace!

Christ within us – he’s our peacemaker. And with our implant, we step into the world, our homes and communities, and we bring a modicum of peace to others. I’ll add my share; you’ll add your share, and together we’ll change the world.

What did Jesus say? “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Prayer for Sunday, November 16, 2008

The sky hazy …
The sun is dim …
Ashes fall …
What’s left of so many homes and hopes …

We are stunned by the magnitude …
Heart-broken for the families …
Grateful for the firefighters …

We celebrate the human spirit, O God …
Courage and fortitude …
Faith and hope …
Kindness and mercy …
The willingness to sacrifice …
Daring to dream and endlessly creative …

You have made us well, O God …
In your image …
To see beyond today …
To pick up and start all over again …
We can do these things, O God, for you have made us well.

We give thanks today, for all that is good …
For Lee Gardner and his trip to Nicaragua …
For Ruth Phelps and Shari Stump …
For their faith and love immeasurable …

We give thanks today for all that is good …
For all the nations of the world …
And all who strive for peace …
For women and men of faith who buck the trends and call us to a better life …
For pastors and prophets …
For ministers and missionaries …
For rabbis and imams …
For monks and priests …
For every prayer being said right now …
Every refusal to give in to anger and despair …
Every word of acceptance and welcome …
Every decision to walk on the sunny side of the street …

We give thanks for all that is good …

For Covenant on the Corner …
For our Sunday School teachers and our pre-school …
For our singers and our musicians …
For our elders and our deacons …
For all our members, all our friends … everyone here this morning …
Everyone who’s been here in our 60 years … and for all who will be here in the years ahead …

Bless us, we pray, that we might be a blessing to our world …
Fill us with light, so that we can let our light shine …
Flavor us with grace, that we might be the salt of the earth …

O God of the ages, we vow anew to be faithful to you and to humanity … faithful to this earth and to all of its creatures, great and small …
We pledge anew:
To worship you in spirit and in truth …
To forgive one another and be forgiven …
To do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with you, our God …

In the name of Jesus our LORD, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name …

Prayer for Sunday, November 9, 2008

Eternal God, never far from us … around us, within us … above us and beneath us … behind us for where we’ve been … ahead of us for where we need to go …

Shed your light upon our nation, we pray … in these days of change and challenge … when the needs of many are so great … the language of the day disturbs us … loss of job and loss of home … declining income and reduced earnings … company closures and deep layoffs … benefits lost and medical costs on the rise … how will we manage, LORD? How will it end?

Bless, we pray, President Bush and President-Elect Obama … bless their meeting tomorrow … and that of Laura and Michelle … guide them in their words … bless them, we pray, in these important days of transition for our Democracy …
Bless, we pray, the members of Congress … the judicial system … those who guide Wall Street, who manage our investments … who buy and sell …

Cleanse, we pray, from the heart of our nation all thoughts of greed and self-advancement … we confess, O God, that we have been dazzled by wealth, and by wealth we have set our course … forgive us, we pray … forgive us for making an idol of such things … of forgetting those who fall behind and need a helping hand … forgive our crude lusts and our ceaseless desires … change us, we pray, by your mighty Spirit … and renew our covenant with one another … remind us, dear God, that we are our brother’s keeper …

In these days of change and challenge, we thank you for the changeless grace that undergirds our lives and holds our spirit … we thank you for Jesus Christ … for our faith and for our hope, for our families and our friends … and for the love that makes all things new …
We lift in prayer today the intimate and personal wants of our lives … our character of soul and mind, and our family relationships … there are griefs here to be comforted … anxieties to be assuaged … prosperity that should not make us proud … difficulties that should not cast us down … temptation that we should rise above … and burdens that need to be borne in faith and not bitterness.*

O God, according to the riches of your grace, minister unto us, we pray, that we might be your people all the more … ready and willing to serve as needed … faithful to Christ, and faithful to one another …

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …


*Thanks to Harry Emerson Fosdick for most of this paragraph!

Prayer - November 2, 2008

O LORD our God, we pray for our nation today …
We pray for Barak Obama and John McCain …
We pray for Sarah Palin and Joe Biden …
We pray for all the candidates throughout our land …

We pray for our soldiers …
And their leaders …
We pray for those who’ve returned home wounded …
We pray for their care-givers …

We pray for the families who’ve lost loved ones in the wars …
We pray for their spouses … for their children …

We pray for the peace-makers, O LORD …
Women and men of vision,
To help us through turbulent times …
Who dare to dream …
Who see a better world … a time of peace …
When war shall be no more.

Help us, we pray, to be your people … to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world …
To embody the love of Jesus …
To know that his way is the way, the truth and the life …
That love is always possible, though never easy …

Help us, we pray, to set our hearts upon Jesus …
To let him be our LORD and our Savior …
To find light in his light …
To know that it’s possible to really follow him …
To pay the price that he asks of us …
To have less of ourselves and more of everyone else …
To grow a little smaller so he can grow a whole lot larger …
To learn the art of self-denial to make room for others …
To pick up our cross and bear it boldly …

LORD, we pray not for our comfort, but our character …
We pray not for our ease, but that we might devote ourselves all the more to the high purpose of Jesus …

We pray for our families and friends, not merely to have the blessings and delights of the day, but that all of us might possess the riches of your kingdom forever … to know the difference between gold and straw …

To build our life upon the rock … and not upon the shifting sand.

To let Jesus be the Ark who leads us across the river …

To do the great and simple things of life …

To laugh a lot …
To grow a garden or bake a pie …
To share as much as we can …
To make time for others …
To join our efforts with women and men of good will all around the world … that justice and peace might thrive …
It can be done, O LORD …
Because you’ve said so …

In the name our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name …