Chips and Salsa Today

What Does God Love?

2012-02-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

Heard this hymn on radio yesterday ...

Impacted me ...

The first verse ...

Breath on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love
What thou does love,
And do what
Thou wouldst do.

I've sung that hymn ten thousand times.

But yesterday, I heard the words.

That I may love what thou does love ...

And what is it that God loves?

And yesterday, it was Bible Study.

The first 5 Chapters of Isaiah.

What is it that God loves?

The justice proclaimed by Isaiah?

Help the oppressed.
Defend the orphan.
Plead for the widow.

Or the glorious Year of the Lord.
Proclaimed by Jesus in his home-town sermon?

And, then:

That I may do what thou wouldst do ...

And what is that God does?
God creates and empowers?
God saves and makes new?
God raises the dead?
And makes life where none previously existed?

Is this what God does, among other things?

Isaiah offers it clear:

God will judge between the nations.
And settle disputes
Of mighty nations.

Then they will beat
Their swords into iron plows
And their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword
Against nation:
They will no longer learn how to make war.

Is this what God does?

Paul says, He's the one who comforts us in all our trouble.
So that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble.
We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.

I want the breath of God, for sure.
I want life.
For myself, my family, my friends.

Like Miss American, I want world peace and everyone to love one another.

But do I love what God loves?

Do I do what God does?

Big questions?

Yeah ... big questions.

And they hurt.

If I let them roll around in me, bumping up against my
Carefully placed spiritual furniture.

Big questions, for sure.

They cry out for some answers.

Preaching for Commitment???

2012-02-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

42 years of ministry ... did some preaching ...

Some of it on commitment ... like, get with the program ... decide.

Maybe a lot of preaching on commitment ... don't be spiritually ineffective.

Lazy ... sloppy ... self-serving ...

It's not about convenience, it's about commitment.

But I wonder ... did my preaching sound like a commercial?

Self-serving ... after all, without commitment, no congregation.

Without a congregation, no job.

Without a job ...

As of late, I think: maybe all this preaching for commitment is an act of "little faith."

Does not God create the heart and shape it?

Did not Jesus promise to build his church?

Preaching for commitment deprives the congregation of something vastly more important.

The fullness of the gospel story.

Jesus and the prophets ...

Jesus and John ...

Rewriting Israel's history.

Hebrews ... Jesus becomes the very center.

He's the Lamb and he's the Priest.

He's the Temple and the Curtain.

He's our all-in-all.

Preach that, and lives are changed.

Maybe not the big numbers big institutions need.

But real numbers.

Real vision.

Real love.

Eastwood, Detroit and GOP

2012-02-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hats off to Eastwood and Detroit ... prosperity for the people is anathema to the GOP which has forgotten that everything from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Erie Canal, the coal and steel industries and the Interstate system are the product of of government and big biz working together for the welfare of the nation. The GOP has become childish and petulant - but such is the mindset of the privileged wealthy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pGMOhOYvcw4

Abortion, Roman Catholics and Conservative Christians

2012-02-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

I've supported the rights of women to have an abortion for a long time. I'm 67, in my 43rd year of being a Presbyterian pastor, and I don't remember a time when I didn't support women's rights on this issue.

As for my Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, I wonder about their pro-birth stance, and by pro-birth, I mean the general notion that once conception has occurred, the woman is merely the carrier of a new life and thus has no say-so whatsoever about it.

She is beholdin' to the gods, or to the god of the Roman Catholic Church, to carry the foetus, the child-within, to term. Period! It's the will of god, as they say, but with darker dimensions in play.

1. When I was in Detroit, working with Dr. Jack Kevorkian on physician assisted suicide, I received dozens of letters from Roman Catholics with one consistent theme: suffering in this life is good for the soul. I suspect some of this plays a role in the pro-birth position.

2. Furthermore, a generally degraded notion about women still lurks in the dark corners of the Roman Church - women are to be seen, not heard. At best, they are baby-factories. A woman is determined by her biology, her ability to get pregnant and bear a child. This is her destiny, her calling, her responsibility, and, of course, it's all determined by god.

3. Much of this notion was forged in Medieval Europe where disease and war decimated the population for centuries, so the church unwittingly played into the hands of the kings and landed nobility by promoting a pro-birth policy to help replenish the labor supply in Europe. Slavery, from the word "Slav," was a part of Europe's pagan and even Christian legacy. The need for labor spurred the turn to slavery in the 1400 and 1500s in Europe and ultimately in the Caribbean Islands and the United States for the production of sugar (the Crusades brought back sugar) and cotton. And everyone agreed, now that Africans were a steady supply of cheap labor, that it was okay for the Christian world, white, to enslave those from the "Dark Continent," providing cheap labor as well saving the slave from the pagan world of Africa. Since people of color were less than fully human, the White Man's Burden was all the important - to take care of these "children," even as they worked the fields for the White Man's Profits.

4. Hence the silly restrictions on birth-control and the edginess about sex-education. Getting pregnant is a woman's highest calling, and anything that diminishes her chances of pregnancy are to be opposed. Hence, Santorum's opposition to birth-control.

Conservative Protestants share the same views:
1. All pregnancy, whatever its origin, is of god.
2. All pregnancies, then, must be carried to term. Period.
3. The woman has no right whatsoever to any decision in any of this.
4. A woman's body is never her own - it belongs to the foetus.
5. A woman's destiny is child-bearing - she is a baby-factory.

All of this plays a huge role in the ambiguity Conservative Protestants still have toward women in the workplace, in the pulpit and in the home. Women are still very much second-class human beings in Conservative Circles, determined not by their minds, but by their wombs.

Powerful Conservative Protestant Men love to have some arm-candy at their side, and perhaps will fund abortions for their wives and daughters in private clinics, reached via private jets, but in their public persona, they maintain a pro-birth stance. Working-class Conservative Protestant Men can't afford such luxuries, so they pay a terrible price as well, as one child after another is born. Is it any wonder that conservative men are often bitter about women and cruel to them? The womb becomes the man's enemy as well, and many a poor man flees from pregnancy, abandoning the women and the future-child.

In both groups, the pro-birth mindset is mindless and bitter, driven by a pro-birth fanaticism that rarely yields to reason, compassion, or reality.

The pro-birth position is evil in its degradation of women, men, and the children it produces.

Millions of children are doomed to a life of hardship and sorrow because of pro-birth fanaticism, which prohibits sex education, birth control and generally disregards the deeper issues of poverty, under-employment, unemployment, the lack of health-care, and the lack of good schools for the children.

In the worst-case scenario, a pro-birth position still produces cheap labor for the nobility.

What Is Creationism?

2011-12-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

A friend recently asked, "What is Creationism?" ... and so I wrote the following email:

Dear Friend,

The following wikipedia article explains quite well, I think, creationism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism

In the broadest sense, anyone who believes God created the world is a "creationist" - as such, huge numbers of scientists are creationists, too - people of faith - and see faith and science as partners in life - one God, one world, and truth - material or spiritual - is consistent, not contradictory.

The struggle, especially in America under the influence of fundamentalism, has been Literalist Creationism - which begins with a literal reading of Genesis (the article is really helpful on this point).

If this were merely a tempest in a teapot, or Christians squabbling with themselves, who would care?

But across the nation, fundamentalists have made a concerted effort, successful in some areas of the country, to take control of local (and state) school boards. Where that effort has failed, many fundamentalists have opted for home-schooling or private schools - their science curricula is rather strange … and so is their history curricula (I've seen and read some of it on line).

At this point, the issue: quality education, the reliability of science (because God created an ordered world that we can accurately see, measure and even understand), the partnership of faith and science, and the accurate and faithful reading of the Bible and its many literary forms - some are quite literal: Jesus dies on Calvary (no metaphor there!) and some are metaphoric (Jesus is the shepherd, the door, bread and water - all metaphors).

Earliest Christians had no trouble reading Genesis as metaphor - searching Genesis for the spiritual meaning. Only in America here, and in the last 150 years, has literal creationism taken hold, and become an educational and political issue (literal creationists tend to be reconstructionists) - that is, to make the United States a theocracy (based upon Old Testament law) - ultimately doing away with the Constitution, which is often called "a godless document," because there is no reference to god in it) - similar to fundamentalist Muslims who want to impose Sharia Law.

It's complicated, for sure, and a lot is at stake.

Anyway, thanks for asking, "What is a creationist?"

Hope the above makes some sense.

Merry Christmas.

Tom

Kindness is always in season! And so is truth!

The Greatest Evil - from C.S. Lewis

2011-11-15T13:03:00.001-08:00

"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern." p.x, The Screwtape Letters by C.S.Lewis, 1959.

The Dream Act in CA

2011-10-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

The anti-Dream Act effort is mean-spirited and short-sighted, lacking vision, imagination, compassion and is decidedly un-American!

We've always respected initiate and determination; if there's a group of people in this nation right now who are determined to make a better life for their families (the ultimate family-value, btw) and are willing to take the initiative and risk to make it happen, it's the immigrants (and let's face it, if they were white and blue-eyed, it would be a whole lot harder to do this; because they're Hispanic, mostly from Mexico, they make a great target (a fav America target ever since 1848), and the hardliners are so satisfied with their "righteous" take on the matter. For me, it makes me sick to my stomach!

Psalm 146.9 is very important to me, and the Biblical ethic of how the "stranger," the "alien," the "immigrant" is treated: "The LORD : who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn!"

As for most Americans, I really can't say; but every day, I see waves of fear and anger washing over the American landscape, in near-tsunami proportions. Such emotions reveal what could well be the twilight of the American character, giving birth to the attitudes and desires that fueled the fascism of Europe in the years prior to WW2. Oh well, so it goes.

Victory - What an Odd Word

2011-10-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Just to say a few words ... but what are words?

Strange things, to be sure.

An amalgam of letters, and what are they, but symbols from

Some ancient past.

When folks told stories by campfire.

And in time,

On cave walls, or

Parchment, or

Vellum,

To become a scroll, a book, a story from the shelf, a

Tall tale of giant sea monsters and

bright stars ... to make children shudder with

Delight ... or shriek with laughter, or

Curl up and go to sleep,

Dreaming of ancient heroes and warriors,

And high waterfalls and wintry mountains,

And ...

Just to say a few words ... but what are words?

In my time, they launch a ship into the sea, and the ship goes off to

War ... and women and men fight valiantly, for dimly known

Causes ... but for the one at their side. And too many die

For the sake of conquest or victory, and talk about strange word?

What does victory mean?

When standing in a pool of blood?

With death all around?

In the midst of our constant, unyielding, mortality?

Is it immortality that we desire?

In the death of others, we might add more time to our failing candle?

Is it power that delights us?

Our testosterone-driven stories?

Victory! What an odd word!

Where Was Jesus at the Debate?

2011-09-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

By my dear friend and colleague, The Rev. Dr. Robert Dahl, Holland, MI

Where were justice, peace, compassion, love, generosity, social responsibility, a willingness to share and care and promote the common welfare in evidence at the Tea Party Republican Debate in Florida, September 12, 2011?

In a phrase, where was Jesus among all these people, the majority of whom would probably consider themselves Bible believing Christians?

Who was that short fellow who looked as if he may have been of Middle-Eastern descent standing outside the building surrounded by security guards, the one easily profiled as a terrorist? Is that why he was outside? Not allowed in? What is he saying? Fear not? Nobody inside could or wanted to hear.

If I heard the derisive catchphrase “Obamacare” once, I heard it countless times. It seemed as if the candidates couldn’t wait to get it out of their mouths. Tell a lie often enough and the people will believe it, in part because they want to believe it. Working class, middleclass whites buying the lies of the insurance companies supported by big contributors and lobbyists to the candidates who gladly passed them on to the gullible crowd. And the carousel merrily went round and round.

After much health care reform bashing by the candidates, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates what should happen to a 20 some-year-old citizen who didn't have health insurance who contracts a serious health condition and requires extensive medical treatment? People in the audience shouted to let him die. They actually did that.

"In as much as you have done to one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me,” said Jesus.

Hypothetical Tea Party joke: A thirty something Jesus has no health insurance and contracts a serious health problem requiring extensive medical treatment, what would you do?

Answer: Let him die because we know he can come back to life all fixed up.

Is it that stupid? Is it that heartless? Is that about the cruelest? It was about at that level.

What I saw that evening as the camera panned across the audience were very few Hispanics and blacks. What I saw was a whole lot of white people who seemingly only cared about themselves and probably not even the people sitting next to them. They want it all. I thought I was watching an old Cecil B. DeMille movie showing the mobs in the seats of the Roman coliseum with thumbs pointed down and blood lust in their eyes. In the arena, the President of the United States knelt before gladiators with swords in their hands. Really, it was that scary.

Where do these people come from? Why are they so mad? What are they afraid of -- losing the myth of their Beaver Cleaver world, not being able to wish upon a star anymore, forfeiting what they think is birth-rightfully theirs to a hoard of foreigners who don’t look like they do, don’t worship at the same places as they do, don’t eat the same food as they do, don’t have the same native tongue as they do?

Panelists called for English to be the national language and the people roared their approval.

Why don't they care about anyone but themselves, and perhaps more importantly why don't they understand how much all government, local, state and federal provide the vehicle though infrastructure, safety nets, food and drug safety, clean air, clean water, electricity and gas to power their homes, local, state and federal recreation areas, etc. for these people to function on a daily basis and have beautiful country in which to take a vacation in a beautiful park at very little cost?

None of these people could live one day without all the government aid they receive from taxes received for the purpose of helping everyone. And if any of them had any of those things taken away they, would scream bloody murder.

A young member of the audience stood and asked the panel how much of every dollar earned belongs to the person who earned it. Shouts could be heard coming from the audience that all of it does.

A friend of mine, in light of that question, asked how much of what a person earns belongs to the privilege of being a citizen of the United States. To paraphrase a TV commercial, “Priceless.”

These are extreme individualists who feel cheated and that everyone but them is getting all the goodies. These are "gimme, gimme, gimme" people.

I heard shouts of glee for capital punishment. I saw a "my country right or wrong" mentality, but a hate for the government of their country.

It just went on and on and on.

I saw a mob mentality, and vengeance and hate.

I wondered what it would take to move these people to violence.

They want their cake and they want to eat it, too.

And the candidates? They fed the frenzy; they whipped up the crowd; they pandered to the base instincts of those who sat in the seats; they said what they thought their fat cat contributors sitting at home sipping brandy and laughing at the spectacle on the screen would want to hear; they told half truths and pure fabrications and they pulled numbers out of the magician’s top hat; they said things they probably don't believe just to get the vote; they wanted to give the audience what they came for; they wanted to give the audience the cake they claimed. They were oh, so cynical.

Only Ron Paul got a pie in the face of boo’s for telling the truth about American militarism and it’s economic costs. How dare he “tread on us”!

What didn't they give them? A reminder that we are all in this together and that we all need to remember that the thread that runs through all religions and all caring societies is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Oh, by the way, I didn't see the Buddha or Mohammed or Lao Tzu or Moses, Confucius, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi, either.

And I wondered how much of all this summer of our discontent is fueled by the question that nobody wants to consider. In this Tea Party Express is there an unnamed, unacknowledged but insidious, systemic and endemic racism roaring down the track transporting these whites to rebellion over the fact that a mixed blood person sits in the hallowed walls of the Oval Office, an office previously only occupied by one of them?

Jimmy Carter named it early on to a cacophony of protests, one such protest even coming from the present occupant of that very office. Are we in a state of denial?

And finally, why did CNN give all this time to this debacle? Ratings? If so, I contributed to it and wasted an evening that I could have used more productively watching Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations."

As the hall emptied following the “debate,” I thought I heard a faint echo of Entry Of The Gladiators by Julius Fucik, used as theme music at every circus, “Ya…da…da..da..ya..da..ya..da..da..da…,” and saw the departing figure of P.T. Barnum, wearing his signature Penguin tails and a cigar in his mouth. I could hear him laughing as the lights went out and the door shut.

The circus was moving on to the next town.

America - the Not-So-Innocent

2011-09-10T05:04:00.000-07:00

This is a tough thought for Americans to consider ... from the get-go, America has been driven by a superiority attitude (we're better than England and all those "other countries," and we can do no wrong, even as we're eradicating Native Americans and their buffalo), a sense that we're a godly nation (and anyone who opposes us opposes god), all of which blinds us to the more complex nature of our story, a story like that of any other nation - driven by self-interest and an adolescent desire to be innocent, blaming our ills on others, and hungry for oil.

The Christian Left

overheard: Thousands died on September 11, 2001. As a result of the US response, hundreds of thousands have died. Who will stand up for them in the midst of all the patriotic posturing this weekend? - Jason Barr

Learning from Other Faith Traditions

2011-06-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, a rather serious young man, quite devoted to Jesus, has been attending a Buddhist Temple lately, learning and growing in that place.

I wrote to him and said: there's much to learn, and the more we learn, the more we grow into the love and mystery of God. Sooner or later, whatever tradition into which we were born, becomes the primary choice, because God is at work in all of them. But history and cultural background play a big role. Yet to learn from other traditions always helps our faith remain faith rather than ideology.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

There was a time when Christian pulpits proclaimed the absolute rightness of the Christian Faith and the total error of everything and everyone else.

It was possible to do so because Christians lived far away and apart from much of the world, but these days, it's highly likely that our neighbors are Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu, and maybe even atheist.

Blanket condemnations no longer work, because the world is now a colleague at work, and the children of the world go to school with our children.

And we have learned far too much about the errors of the Christian Church to ever again suggest that Christianity is pure and good.

So we are learning to take our place in the family of God - a great humility at the heart of renewal.

And that can only be good for the world!

May 22, 2011 - Pastor's Prayer

2011-05-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

Great God Almighty,

Creator of the Heavens and the Earth,

You have been our dwelling place throughout the ages.

Before the world was cast by your word, your love for us was already established … your grace already at work …

From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Your Word anchors the universe.

Your light shines in deepest space and in the tiniest of creatures.

You number the hairs of our head.

A sparrow falling to the ground catches your attention.

You are at work in all things.

In all things for good.

It is right and good, O God, for us to be here today.

To hear the words of Jesus.

To think and pray.

To sing and celebrate.

To enlarge our understanding.

To know you better.

To love you all the more.

We pray, O God, for our world.

We pray for the leaders of the nations.

For parliaments and legislatures and judges.

We pray for peace.

We pray for your blessing on women and men of good faith.

Those who dare to see a new world, and strive for it.

Those who refuse to believe the gospels of violence and power and nationalism.

And believe, instead, in the Prince of Peace, and walk with him on the pathways of humility, kindness and justice.

We pray for President Obama and his family.

We pray for governor Brown and for mayor Guidi.

We pray for all those who take up the burdens of government.

And we pray for the citizens of America.

Deliver our nation, we pray, from the sins of nationalism and pride.

Deliver us from the sins of greed and wealth.

Deliver us from the sins that divide one against another.

Deliver us from the sins that impoverish many and enrich the few.

Deliver us from the sins that shut minds and harden hearts.

Bless Calvary Presbyterian Church, we pray.

Bless us, that we might be a blessing to our neighborhood, our community, our world.

Bless us, that we might have the light of Christ in our hearts and minds.

Bless us, that we might be the salt of the earth, a joyful witness to your work and your wisdom.

Bless us, we pray, that we might do your will on earth as it is in heaven.

Watch over us, we pray, in the remains of the day.

Breathe into us anew the Holy Spirit.

Use us, we pray.

And send us forth from this place with a fresh sense of hope, because you are at work in all things, in all things for good.

And to you, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all praise, honor and glory.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

Southern Religion - Some Unpleasant Observations

2011-05-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Having lived and pastored in W.Va and in Ok, I'm well aware of the "violent pulpit" - the cajoling, the threatening, the hellfire and brimstone, the laws and the punishments.

It enters into the air folks breath and the water they drink ... along with the lack of unions and good pay, the terrible racism that still plagues so many areas, poor public education, too many private schools, and home-schooling, a love of the military and guns, too many young girls having too many children (no birth control and no abortion), a male sexual ethic out of whack and subservient women, a god-controls-all-things mentality that shrinks human responsibility, a punishing god who's going to kill the enemy and send 'em all packing to hell, forever; and a religion that's all about being saved, baptized and going to heaven, with a god who killed his own son for the sake of something good. Sorry to go on and on, but Southern religion is, for me, mostly a dysfunction.

This note was written into some questions raised about a recent assessment of the most violent states in America - click HERE to read.

The Ideal Husband??? - hee hee ...

2011-03-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Ideal Husband to His Wife

WE'VE lived for forty years, dear wife,
And walked together side by side,
And you to-day are just as dear
As when you were my bride.
I've tried to make life glad for you,
One long, sweet honeymoon of joy,
A dream of marital content,
Without the least alloy.
I've smoothed all boulders from our path,
That we in peace might toil along,
By always hastening to admit
That I was right and you were wrong.
No mad diversity of creed
Has ever sundered me from thee;
For I permit you evermore
To borrow your ideas of me.
And thus it is, through weal or woe,
Our love forevermore endures;
For I permit that you should take
My views and creeds, and make them yours.
And thus I let you have my way,
And thus in peace we toil along,
For I am willing to admit
That I am right and you are wrong.
And when our matrimonial skiff
Strikes snags in love's meandering stream,
I lift our shallop from the rocks,
And float as in a placid dream.
And well I know our marriage bliss
While life shall last will never cease;
For I shall always let thee do,
In generous love, just what I please.
Peace comes, and discord flies away,
Love's bright day follows hatred's night;
For I am ready to admit
That you are wrong and I am right.: Sam Walter Foss

Sam Walter Foss (June 19, 1858 - February 26, 1911) was a librarian and whose works included The House by the Side of the Road and The Coming American.

Do I need to say, the above is a delightful tongue-in-cheek description of the "ideal" husband ... but I suspect some guys might miss the point.

D is shaking her head right now ... she does that a lot with me.

Rottweilers, Love and God

2011-02-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

From my friend, Stephanie Schatz – all the dogs noted in her note are Rottweilers …

Stephanie writes:

Thanks for taking the time to explain and reassure me that God has a special place for all his creation. Personally I also believe that God created a special companion animal just for man … sorry kitties.

Historically there has been no other animal on earth that has worked for man in so many capacities, comforted, showed extraordinary forgiveness, and even forfeited their life for their human. As the saying goes … the only love you can buy is a dog.

The moment this came clearest for me was when I was volunteering with "Mallory," Bryce's predecessor, at Ronald McDonald House. We were there to entertain the healthy siblings of the children being treated at the hospital.

We were on the patio where Mallory was very engaged in tug of rope against 3 determined little boys. The automatic double doors opened and a quadriplegic girl appeared in what looked like a space age wheelchair that she could operate with one finger. Mallory dropped the rope and ran to greet her and lick that one hand operating the chair. I was amazed!

Then she ran back got the rope and took it to the girl and my heart sunk, until Mallory draped the rope over the girl's hand, sat in place with the rope in her mouth moved her head slowly from side to side, added a playful growl and "pretended" to played tug with this little girl on her level.

I was no longer amazed … I was in awe as I realized that I was witnessing something divine ... something that came from a higher level than dogs supposedly have access to.

I never taught Mallory this 'behavior' and we we're never in a situation like this before or after. This wasn't a circus trick it was an independent act on her part of love and compassion and we know that those traits are Godly.

I'm certain Mallory is in a special place and I'm 100% sure that we will be together again one day. It means a lot to know that I am not theologically alone in my views.

And BTW … if Mallory had not passed exactly when she did I would not have Chad, and if Chad had not gotten sick ... I would not have Bryce. Coincidence? I don't think so. Can't wait to see who God has lined up for me next!!

My thanks to Stephanie for this remarkable story. We’d all do well to pay a little more attention the animals around us. They have hearts, too, and love.

And Stephanie’s right – there is no other species who has befriended humankind as have dogs. Simply because we feed them? No. They know that we need them!

January 30, 2011 - Prayers of the People

2011-02-01T17:11:00.001-08:00

Eternal God, always good, always faithful, always hopeful, always true …

We lift our praises to you.

Grateful for our lives.

Because it’s good to be here.

To be alive in Christ, to know Christ, to serve him to the best of our ability.

To join with him in building a better world.

To let the light shine.

To give peace a chance.

To heal the wounds of the soul.

To challenge the idolatries of religion and its love of temples.

To challenge the ideologies of nationalism and its love of power.

To speak the truth of the gospel.

To walk with Christ.

To take his yoke upon us and learn from him.

Your ways, O God, the ways of the kingdom.

We pray today for our schools.

For our city council.

For our mayor.

And our governor.

We pray for our state.

We pray for our legislators and our judges.

We thank you for our natural resources.

The high Sierras and their stored vistas …

The crashing surf of the Pacific …

We pray for the women and men who farm … who raise and harvest our lettuce and radishes and dates and tomatoes and avocados and oranges and cucumbers and carrots.

We pray, O God, that we will have your eyes …

To see your world as you do.

To look upon one another with grace.

To bestow dignity upon the least of these …

To speak words of hope and encouragement …

To lift up and never put down.

To speak the truth in love, LORD, because, we’ve learned the hard way, a thousand times over, where there is no love, there is no truth either.

Bless us we pray in the remains of the day.

Watch over our loved ones and guide our steps.

Rest your Spirit upon Pastor Cathy Chisholm as she makes her move from Texas to California, to become our pastor. Bless her family and friends, and fill her with your joy.

We are ready, LORD.

We are eager.

We are yours.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

January 23, 2011 - Prayers of the People

2011-01-23T15:29:00.001-08:00

O LORD our God, great are you names: the way, the truth and the life … the shepherd of your people, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the guardian and guide of every soul, the source of life and hope and peace …

And a troubler of our conscience.

A thorn in our flesh.

A goad to our spirit.

And we thank you.

Your love that never leaves us as we are.

Your grace calls forth from us the better self that we can be.

Your word judges us honestly, and we know our sin.

Our foibles and our faults.

Painful as it is, dear God, we face these things with courage born of your unconditional love for us, your tender mercies, and your call to follow Christ, with all that are, and all that we hope to be.

Eternal God, you are forever, dwelling in eternal light.

We are but for a moment or two.

A few brief years, yet we breath your breath – something eternal within us … we are strivers and builders and creators and dreamers and burden-bearers and lovers and friends … we look up at the stars and our souls are strangely moved by the magnitude and mystery of the universe, so vast and deep and impossibly big … we watch the clouds shape-shifting and we catch glimpses of strange creatures and memories of times long ago … we watch the surf crashing at our feet … we walk toward the receding waters, and then quickly step back with the onrush of the next wave … like children we play … the spirit of inquiry and delight … humor and holiness …

We are glad to be here today, dear God.

To worship in the Spirit of Christ.

To love one another.

To learn.

To grow.

To be changed into the likeness of Christ.

To be a light to the world.

And the salt of the earth.

We are glad to be here.

Because this is a place where you find us.

And we find you.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit … with all that you are, you visit us.

With all that you have, you love us.

With all that you give, you restore us and make us new every day, with hope and courage … the hope for a better life, a better world, a better way of doing things … and the courage to try it … to reach out for others, to look out for others … to love and forgive and serve and honor one another … in the great fellowship of faith, the church of Jesus Christ, and a place called Covenant, Covenant on the Corner …

We thank you, O God, for this day.

A time to cast our glance toward the future.

A time to look down the road a bit.

A time to remember your faithfulness in all the years that have been, so that we can face the years ahead, knowing that you stand behind us, ahead of us, above and beneath us … and with your Holy Spirit, you are within us, shaping our souls, like a potter with clay on potter’s wheel – your hands upon us, pushing and trimming and shaping … we resist, as good clay always does … and you persist as a good potter, who sees what the lump could be.

Bless Cathy with us this day.

Bless Covenant on the Corner.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

January 9, 2011, Prayers of the People

2011-01-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Eternal God, we thank you for the grace to live in the light of Christ.

For the hope that encourages us, because Christ is born within us.

For the days ahead of us, O God,

Guide us we pay.

Shape our values and give us holy purpose for our work and for our leisure.

We pray for the environment, O God.

Your creation … our Garden.

You have given us the world and all of its life-forms, to care for all of it, with our hands and toil, our minds and creativity, and most of all, our love – our love for all creatures, great and small … and our care for the air we all breath, the water we drink, the food we eat …

Today, O God, we pray for prosperity.

Not simply for our own pleasure, or to be number one, or any other such foolish notions, but that we might have more opportunity to be generous in our giving.

Bless our work, O God, and grant to us what’s needed that we might apply ourselves with diligence, creativity and imagination to make our work the best it can be.

Bless those who manage our investments …

Bless the banks and money markets of our land …

That all the tools of recovery might be used to sustain our democracy … to ease the burdens of the poor … to put people back to work … to help those who can’t work …

Bless our CEOs and boards of directors.

May they set their sights on just profits and work-place safety and good benefits.

May the greed of Wall Street be tamed.

The temptations of ostentation be avoided.

May the kindness of the human heart be celebrated.

May good jobs, fair jobs, be their goal.

We pray for our nation … and its President.

We pray for all the new legislators …

We pray for our governor, Jerry Brown …

We pray for all of our politicians … the burdens they bear … burdens of leadership, and the many temptations that come their way …

Especially, we pray Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her family; we pray for the other families who lost loved ones … and we pray for the young man who did the shooting …

Watch over us we pray in the remains of the day.

Keep us in the good cheer of Christ.

Who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

December 19, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-12-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

Eternal God, thank you.

Thank you for our LORD Jesus Christ and for the church, and for the millions of people who have walked the pathways of faith, who have held high the light of hope for a sin-darkened world, and endured suffering for the sake of the gospel.

We’re encouraged in the light of their witness, O God.

Encouraged to be steadfast in the things of faith.

To do the best we can.

To love deeply, to forgive quickly, and to be with one another in the fellowship of the church.

To make the church good … to make it pure in its vision and purpose …

And courageous in its witness …

Holding before the world the rich alternative of your kingdom.

A kingdom of light and peace.

Father in heaven, we thank you for our jobs.

We thank you for those who work for us, and we thank you for those under whom we work.

Help us to be faithful in our work …

To bring high value to our tasks …

To labor with Christ in our hands and in our feet.

That we might be swift to the demands of our work.

And kindly in our dealings with all.

Applying ourselves with creativity and energy.

Conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of Christ himself.

We pray, O God, for friends and family.

Some who grieve the loss of loved ones.

Others who battle illness.

Some are out of work and looking.

Some work in hard places.

We pray for the spiritually confused.

Folks who wander from one truth to another, forever looking and never finding.

Be merciful to them, we pray, and when the time is right, reveal to them the glory of Christ and bring them to yourself.

We pray for the hard-of-heart.

Those who have steeled their souls to your tender mercies and the power of the gospel.

Those who are lost within degraded values and mindless self-interest.

Be merciful to them in their rebellion, we pray, and as the years wear on, wear them down, until they come to their senses and lay down their arms and surrender to you, dear God … returning home to where we all belong … your love, O God, and the kingdom of heaven.

Bless us, we pray, in the remains of the day.

Bless our worship and imprint upon us the glory of Christ.

Plant deep within our minds his life-giving word.

And put us to sleep tonight with a sense that we have touched the hem of his robe and heard choirs of angels singing your glory.

All of this, 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, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven …

Advent Prayer - Centering Ourselves in Christ

2010-12-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Advent Prayer – Centering Ourselves in Christ

Teach us, we pray, to walk with Christ more intently and more easily.

To walk with him in the ways of our lives.

In the best of times and in the worst.

When laughter comes quickly and when tears flow deeply.

Teach us, we pray, to hear the words of Christ.

To abide in them and ponder their meaning.

Making his words our words.

Learning from them how to live and how to love.

Teach us, we pray, to share Christ.

By the words of faith we share with others.

By the justice we pursue.

By the grace of open arms and the power of an open mind.

Teach us, we pray, to love Christ all the more.

To seek our salvation in his glory.

In the wonder of his cross and the mystery of the empty tomb.

For in him, dear God, you have given us life, here and now and forever.

Teach us, we pray, that Christ would be our all-in-all.

In his name, and for his sake. Amen!

December 12, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-12-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

In your presence, O God, we find ourselves.

We find the where and the what and the why of our lives.

Heaven knows we’ve tried a concoction of other gods and goods.

Only to find ourselves all the more intent on knowing and loving you.

With unabated hope, dear God, we pray for our world.

For you are at work in all things …

Your love, O LORD, has a far reach, and your love continues to bend the course of history toward justice.

Your judgments, always merciful, bring down the high and the mighty, and lift up the poor and the downtrodden.

For us, O LORD, your timeline seems too slow … but in Christ, we see the final outcome and hear the promise that all shall be made new … we trust in your wisdom and in your mercy to get us there, at the right time.

We pray for the Holy Spirit in our lives.

To heal our wounds and restore our dignity.

That we might be a part of Christ, effectively.

And work beside him.

In Christ, O LORD, keep our eyes clean and clear.

That we might not be seduced by the glitter of power and the lust for national glory.

Keep our eyes open, we pray, to the needs of others.

To be kindly in our thoughts and compassionate in our actions.

To seek only the best.

Judging not, and welcoming all.

Giving everyone a break, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Help your people around the world to bear witness to the faith, hope and love we find in Jesus Christ.

And for people of good faith everywhere … our sisters and brothers who are Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu and Jewish, and so many other stripes and flavors, help us all to link arms against violence, to stand with one another for peace, to resist the allurement of easy answers and military options … to be people of prayer and people of good service – to ease the burdens of the poor, to feed the hungry and cloth the naked … and speak out and speak up against unfairness and prejudice and bigotry and half-truths and mindless religion and religion without a heart.

We give thanks for humanitarian organizations around the world, making a difference, calling us to responsibility and helping us focus our power for good and for peace.

We give thanks for The Hunger Project.

The Peace Corps.

And Doctors Without Borders.

LORD, we pray for Covenant on the Corner this morning.

Our friends and neighbors, and those with whom we work.

For all who sorrow … may they be comforted by your Holy Spirit.

For the lonely … may they be consoled by good and loving friends.

For those who are confused and frightened … may they see the love of Christ today and find new direction for their life and a greater confidence to face the challenges of the day.

And for the proud, we pray … may the fear that drives pride be cast out … that a new and easy love might emerge.

For the angry, we pray … may they find peace in their time.

And for the bitter, we pray … may they find joy in Christ … may they find the power to forgive, and the grace to forget.

Bless us, we pray, that we might be a blessing to others.

Guide us, we pray, that we might lead others to Christ.

Fill us with your goodness that we might be good for 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, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

December 5, 2010, Prayers of the People

2010-12-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

Eternal God, we lift up our thoughts to you in prayer and praise, grateful for this time and place, to be here in worship with one another, under the tutelage of your Holy Spirit, guided by the words of Scripture, to learn more of Christ and be further formed in his image.

That we might be your people here and now.

Bearing witness on behalf of Christ.

To a world of need … a world of many hurts and much sorrow, dear God …

A world often lost amid its own fears and greed … a world severely injured by the arrogance of its own power, driven by economic devices riddled with injustice, and political aspirations distorted by a callous disregard for the truth.

O LORD, we do not pretend about the world in which we live.

But it’s the world you love.

The world for which Christ was born.

The world to which you call us, to make known to the world your great love.

We give thanks for Jesus Christ, O God.

Because he is the way, the truth and the life.

His way makes sense, though it often seems strange to us.

His truth is clear, though we doubt it more than we care to admit.

His life is good, dear God, though we turn to our own versions of goodness with a bizarre willfulness that never gives us what we want, and takes away what we love.

O LORD, have mercy, we pray.

In the light of Christ, O God, we see light.

Light, pure and good.

And by that light, we know our sin, dear God.

It pains us greatly, and we are not proud

So with much relief, we confess our sins to you:

We have not loved as we could.

We have been selfish far too often.

We have been enamored of ourselves.

We have spoken when we should have listened.

We’ve given into fear when we could have been faithful.

We’re turned inward when we should have turned outward.

We have prayed without commitment.

We have worshiped with our lips and not our hearts.

These are the sins of our life, O God.

And we lay them at the foot of the cross.

For sin is a burden we cannot carry.

The weight of sin is greater than our strength, we humbly confess.

To Christ we flee, O God.

To the cross we hurriedly go.

To give unto Christ the burdens we cannot carry.

The sins of our life and the sins of the world, for Christ takes them all into his great heart.

And gives us all a second chance.

O LORD our God, thank you for Christ.

For the grace that heals.

For the mercy that transforms.

For the peace that gives us strength to march onward.

To stay the course and keep on keepin’ on, because of Jesus Christ our LORD and our Savior.

Who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

November 21, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-11-22T06:29:00.001-08:00

Eternal God, thank you.

Thank you for the gift of life.

However hard life is sometimes, LORD, it’s good to be here.

Good to be alive.

To feel sunshine on our face.

To smell rain in the air.

To hear wind rustling the leaves of fall.

To watch waves crash upon the shores of our world.

To see snow in the mountains.

To love and be loved.

To honor and to be honored.

To serve and to be served.

To live for you, God.

In the grace of our LORD Christ.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Eternal God, thank you.

For priests, pastors, rabbis and imams.

We pray for the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict.

We pray for Protestant Churches and Independent Churches.

We pray for those who follow the ways of Judaism and Islam.

We pray today for world leaders.

For the United Nations.

For our neighbors to the north and to the south.

We pray for the nations of the Middle East.

And we pray for the war-torn nation of Afghanistan.

We pray for soldiers everywhere.

We pray for their commanders.

And we pray for peace.

A day when nations will lay down their arms.

And for that day, O God, we yearn.

For that good day, we pray.

And for that day of peace, we work.

Forgive our world and its warring ways.

For religion when it waves the flag and loves the gun.

Forgive the nations that sell arms and profit from war.

Forgive the multi-national corporations who shun ethics for the sake of profits.

And forgive us, O LORD, when we turn a deaf ear to the cries of our world, and a blind eye to injustice.

We pray for Covenant on the Corner today.

Giving thanks for your grace in our midst.

Leading us all these years.

Guiding us through times of challenge and hardship.

Doing might works in our midst.

Changing hearts and minds.

Saving lost souls.

Getting us through the worst of times.

Enabling us to love you and to love 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, thy kingdom come …

November 14, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-11-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

It is right and good, O God, for us to say thank you … to set our minds upon your mercy and to set aside ourselves for a few redeeming moments – free of me, mine and myself, as least during this time of prayer and worship. Free to count some of our many blessings and give you thanks:

You have given us your very own breath.

You have given us dignity and responsibility.

You have endowed us with conscience.

You have provided all things needful.

You have set your love upon us, and made us a part of Christ, Christ the Cornerstone, Christ the Morning Star, Christ the hope of the world!

We pray today for the State of Israel and its Palestinian citizens.

We pray for Afghanistan and Pakistan and India.

We pray for Iraq and Prime Minister Maliki.

We pray today for social workers and child-welfare workers.

We pray for those who work in prisons.

We pray for teachers in tough schools and hard neighborhoods.

We pray for Fr. Boyle and his work with youth.

We pray for the Catholic Workers Kitchen downtown and the Union Rescue Mission.

We pray for the LAX Food Pantry.

And for all who ease the pains and sorrows of suffering.

We pray, O God, for your Holy Spirit to enter anew into our hearts and minds, clearing out the dark materials, and embedding the light of Christ..

To whom we belong.

And in whom we find ourselves and our purpose in life – to glorify you, our Father in heaven, to reach out and make disciples, joining hands with others along the way, in one great fellowship of faith and witness.

We look to Christ, O God:

His selfless deeds of mercy.

His voluntary death.

His glorious resurrection from the dead.

And his continuing power to save us.

Today, we give special thanks for Canines @ Covenant.

For Patty Hedges and her leadership, her compassion and vision.

For Caralyn and Lynn, and many others who embrace the passion and the mission of Canines @ Covenant.

With them, we give thanks fir a year of worship and praise.

For changed lives, and lives changing the world.

We give thanks for Veterans Day, a time to remember.

Those who have served their nation in a moment of great need.

We honor them today, and pray your blessing upon them and their families.

We pray today for Covenant on the Corner.

For our Designated Pastor Nominating Committee.

For our elders and deacons.

For everyone who makes Covenant a place of worship and praise unto your glory, O God.

We pray today for those who grieve the loss of loved ones, who now, of necessity, walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That you are near to them, dear God, in the hour of need, is worthy of our praise. That in all such places and times, you minister tenderly to those with broken hearts.

We pray for our children.

We pray for our families.

We pray, O God, that in some small way today, we will prove faithful to you, no matter what.

That we will serve Christ and love one another.

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us …

Bread - My Son's Swaziland Dog

2010-11-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Bread loves J's feet ...

"Heaven" - in my son's arms ...

November 7, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-11-07T10:01:00.001-08:00

Holy God, where do we begin with our thanksgiving and praise?
For you come to us in billions of saving ways:
Through prophets and playwrights and poets.
Musicians and dancers and artists.
Parents and teachers and counselors.
And with your Holy Spirit deep within.
And through Jesus Christ your Son.
All of this and more, to save us.
To save us from ourselves.
To raise our conscience from the dead of sin, and form our souls in the image of Christ.
That we might be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
That we might be truly good for something!

We pray today for your church, O LORD.
Its sins are many and grievous.
The church, O LORD, has not always preached your gospel.
We have built buildings and kingdoms more than we have built love.
And we can only confess these sins with sorrow and humility:
Be merciful to the church, dear God, the church for which your Son died, the church created by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day.
In your mercy, restore your church, that the church might have authentic life, and be a beacon of real hope.
Raise up in our midst, we pray, women and men of great faith and vision. Thanks be to you, O God, for elders and deacons who lead the way, and for pastors who teach us your Word and challenge us to think.

We pray today for our newly elected officials.
Upon their shoulders, O God, the heaviest of burdens, and the greatest of challenges.
May your Holy Spirit bless our nation with a great conscience for the poor and the oppressed, and grant to us a high determination to wage peace rather than war.
And for the nations of the world we pray.
For our neighbors to the south and to the north.
For kings and queens and prime ministers and presidents.
For all who govern and lead.

We pray for our children, dear God.
For our families and our friends.
And for our beloved Covenant on the Corner.
We pray for those in sorrow.
Those who are near unto death.
Those who wonder what it’s all about.
For marriages challenged by the stresses and strains of the day.
For lonely hearts.
Bitter spirits.
For souls arid and dry.
For anyone discouraged and fearful.

O LORD our God, be merciful to us all.
We need your grace.
Your peace.
We need your Holy Spirit.
To infuse our hearts with a fresh lease on life.
And a deeper devotion to Jesus Christ our LORD.

Who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

Good Humor? Good Puns?

2010-11-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

From a dear friend:

Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.
A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
Dijon vu – the same mustard as before.
Practice safe eating – always use condiments.
Shotgun wedding – A case of wife or death.
A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.
A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.
When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.
What's the definition of a will? It's a dead give away...
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.
A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.
With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
Local Area Network in Australia – the LAN down under.
Every calendar's days are numbered.
A lot of money is tainted – It taint yours and it taint mine.
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
He had a photographic memory that was never developed.
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
Once you've seen one shopping centre, you've seen a mall.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis...
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
Acupuncture is a jab well done.

October 31, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-10-31T09:39:00.001-07:00

Eternal God, in whom there is no shortage of grace, we thank you with heart and soul, that we’re here today in a place called Covenant.
We’re here, O God, because you have called us unto yourself, you have cleared away the debris of sin and made your way to us, when we were too weak, too tired, too broken, to find our way to you.

We are like the lost coin and you found us.
The lost sheep and you carried us.
The confused boy with tattered clothing and selfish soul, and you welcomed us home with royal robes and fine rings.

We thank you, O God, as best we can.
That your love is greater than our love.
Your grace bigger than our repentance.
Your mercy larger than our promises.
We thank you, O God, that our salvation doesn’t hinge on our faith, strong as it may be sometimes.
But hinges on Christ and his Cross, always strong, always good, always faithful.

We pray today for our nation.
We pray for the candidates.
We pray for all who will cast a vote.

We pray for the nations of the world.
Nicaragua, Swaziland and Tibet.
China, Russian and India.
Nations large and small, rich and poor.
Grateful, O LORD, that all the nations belong to you … that, in the weal and woe of history, in our best and in our worst, your hand remains upon us all … that you remain steadfast in your love for the world you created, and firm in your determination to save us, even as humankind proves itself unworthy of your love in our warring and wasteful ways.
Forgive us, we pray, and hold us accountable even as you move us to better days.

Raise up for us, we pray, women and men of compassion.
To heal the wounds we inflict upon one another.
To stem the tide of disease and ignorance.
To bring good news to the poor.
To lift up the fallen.
To bring hope and peace to wearied souls.
To challenge the powerful to be powerful for good.
To challenge the values of materialism and wantonness.
To lift high the cross of Jesus Christ.

We pray, today, dear God, for ourselves and those we love.
For friends in need, and families in distress.
For loved ones in faraway places.
For broken hearts beset with disappointment.
Minds besieged with worry and fear.
Souls bent low with the burdens of envy and anger.
For the healing of all such things, we pray.

Give us your goodness, we pray, that we might be good for the world.
Give us good humor, so that we can have a good laugh now and then at ourselves.
Grant us peace within our souls.
And prosperity in our labors.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

Prayers of the People – October 24, 2010

2010-10-24T10:12:00.001-07:00

Whatever our momentary mood, O LORD, whatever our fortune may be, charge our souls with gratitude, that we may always find cause to thank you … and have reason to flood heaven with our praise! For great is your name, and vast are your blessings, and blessed are we to be a part of Christ.

We thank you, O God:
For unwise prayers you denied, sparing us the pain of desires not yet mature.
We were angry when you said No! … but we give thanks for making us wait and think and grow further into our life.
We thank you, dear God, unexpected trials that come our way, releasing within us capacities for patience and love …
For the ancient words of Scripture that burn with passion and invite us to the foot of the cross.
For Jesus of Nazareth, who finds the lost sheep and stills the raging sea …
We thank you, loving God, for a remarkable mercy that holds us when we’re hardly worth the holding.

We pray today for world leaders …
For women and men who bear arms …
For those who wear the robes of justice and those who wear the badge of enforcement …

We pray today for religious leaders and spiritual teachers …
For artists and poets …
Dancers and singers …
For those who entertain us … and make us laugh and cry.

We pray, O God …
That we might have good hearts … to see the world as you do, with mercy, love and hope …
That we might have good minds … ready to wrestle with tall ideas, thinking long and hard about what love means.

We pray that when hard times come our way, we’ll meet them with some dignity and peace of mind, for you are at work in all such things … near to us in the hours of our need.

We pray that we will keep our eyes on Christ … neither blinded by glitter and glamour nor discouraged by the troubles of the day.

We pray that the love of Christ will guide us through the days of our lives … until we come to stand before your great throne, O God, gathered with all of humanity and all the angels, in a new heaven and a new earth, where tears are no more, and the sun never sets.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

With thanks to Ernest T. Campbell and his prayers; in them, I find much inspiration.

October 17, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-10-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

Almighty God, it is right and good for us to be here today – to give you thanks and praise:

Thanks and praise:
For the church of Jesus Christ …
For the bud of love in the human soul.
For visions of a just and peaceful world …

Thanks and praise:
For our breath and for our bread.
For our ability to remember and our capacity to hope.

Thanks and praise:
For serious minds who grapple with tall questions …
For fun-loving souls who grace our world with humor, and remind us to laugh at ourselves.

Thanks and praise, O God, for the rescue of the Chilean miners …
In such moments, O God, we learn a little bit more about life and love … what we can accomplish when we work together … and put our shoulders to the wheel for the common good.

Almighty God, creator of the heavens and the earth, we pray now for the church around the world …
Bless the church with a generous spirit …
Save the church from preoccupation with nickels and noses …
Guide the church to an ever-deepening understanding of Christ …
Open wide the hearts and minds of your people, to receive more of your love and to welcome everyone in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our LORD.

Specifically, we pray for those near and dear to us.
Some are walking through the valley of the shadow of death and wonder if the dark clouds will ever recede … stay near to them, we pray.
Some have lost employment and fear for their future … watch over them, we pray.
Some live and work in far-away places … keep them safe, we pray.
Some are burdened with harsh memories and bitter regret … with your Holy Spirit, O God, minister gently to their wounded souls … and lead them by your hand to safe places of healing.

For all of us here, dear LORD, enough grace to make it through the day … enough hope to keep a bright spirit … enough peace to be a peaceable presence in our world …

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

With many thanks to the prayers of Ernest T. Campbell that have, of late, been such an inspiration to me.

Help My Peace Corps Son Fly to His Sister's Wedding

2010-10-15T20:47:00.001-07:00

Prayers of the People - October 10, 2010

2010-10-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

We thank you, O God, for a time and place to gather …
To gather our thoughts and lift our hearts toward you, Creator of the heavens and the earth.
We thank you for those who have gone this way long before we were born.
For women and men of faith and vision.
Who looked upon Christ with gladness and joined the brave procession that has made this world better …
They plowed the good earth and planted the seed to feed millions.
Built schools and hospitals.
Saw the horrors of slavery and called for its abolition.
Watched children labor in dark and dangerous mines and factories and came to their defense.
They labored and lobbied for shorter workweeks and the 8-hour day, for a minimum wage … for health care, pension benefits and safe working conditions, to honor the dignity of work and to preserve the wellbeing of our families.
They organized and marched to give women the vote, to insure for all life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, free of gender constraints and prejudice.
For all of who have gone the way of faith, hope and love, we join our voices with choirs of angels, giving thanks, and praising you, O God, for your grace poured out upon humankind, a grace that still stirs the conscience to see the world with the eyes of Christ, a grace that yet calls young and old to follow him, the Christ who bore upon his back the cross of our condemnation and was raised on the third day in the glory of your divine confirmation.

We pray today for those in the banking industry: guide them, dear God, to sort out their priorities, because every mortgage is a family, every paper they sign is someone’s life.
Deliver them, and deliver all of us, we pray.
We pray for schools and teachers – who work in crowded classrooms, in buildings too often ill-kept, with meager supplies and the pressures of the day: with too many children poorly nourished who cannot concentrate; children who are anxious, because family life is hard … and frustrated families caught in the machinery of too much work, not enough time, and the economic turmoil that troubles all of us.
Deliver them, and deliver all of us we pray.
We pray for our President and his family, those who counsel and protect them.
Our legislators and our judges.
Our governors and our mayors.
Firefighters and police officers.
A host of folks who sit at computers keeping track of 310 million people.
Watch over them all, dear LORD, and keep them in your care.

We pray now for Covenant on the Corner:
And all who gather here in worship.
Our shut-ins and those who live far away.
Elders and Deacons, and all who serve.
Youth leaders and the youth under their care.
And the impact we have on the city around us.
Give us, we pray, a lively sense of mission.
The ability to choose our priorities.
The grace to love one another in our differences and distinctions.
The faith to trust you in all times and places.
And the hope of the Gospel.

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, thy will be done …

September 26, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-09-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

Dear God in heaven,
We pray with gratitude and hope.
Thy Kingdom come … thy will be done.

You have given us a vision:
A world that is just and good.
And toward that end, O God, we join in the great procession of faith … a procession led by Christ.

Empower us, we pray, with your Holy Spirit.
Infect our hearts with the glory of the Risen Christ.
Flood our minds with his joy and his passion.
Direct our footsteps in his pathways.
Make us fearless in the face of the troubles and trials of the day.
Give us voice to speak the gospel.
To be positive and hopeful and kind.
To be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

We pray today for Soup Kitchens - those who serve and the hungry women and men who receive.
We pray today for Food Pantries - those who bag groceries and those who stock the shelves … and the clients who stand in line.

We pray for ourselves, LORD.
That we might work hard and faithfully, wherever we are … in the best of times and in the hardest of times.
Shouldering the burdens of life, and not complaining too much.
Doing our best, dear God, as best we can.
Looking upon others with kindness.
As you look upon us with mercy!

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, thy will be done …

September 12, 2010, Prayers of the People

2010-09-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

O LORD our God, thank you!

Thank you for Covenant Presbyterian Church … and thank you for your Holy Spirit in this place …

Thank you for the life we have today … each one of us … whatever the burdens we must bear, we’re here, and it’s good to be alive.

Thank you for people who care … for people who see a new world and dedicate themselves to make it happen … for people who swing hammers and pound nails to build a new home for a needy family … for people who bag groceries by the ton for hungry people … for people ladling out rice and beans to the folks who live on the street … for Sunday School teachers and deacons, for musicians and elders … for every members of this community of faith … for every prayer said by them, for every kindly deed done by them, for every effort made to honor Christ in word and deed… O LORD, our God, we give thanks.

Bless us, we pray.
With the love of Christ.
That we, too, might dare to see a new day and give ourselves to the future.
That we, too, might pick up our cross and bear the burdens of faith.
That we, too, might apply ourselves to the best and the brightest of things … choosing the better angels of faith, hope and love.

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, thy will be done …

2010-09-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

What Would Jesus Say? ... by Bob Orr

2010-09-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

From my good friend and fine writer, Bob Orr ... written in reflection on the possible burning of a Quran at a Florida Church.

What Would Jesus Say?

The Jesus I know from the Gospels was a friend to all and demonstrated in his actions God's love and forgiveness to men and women especially the ones we would condemn and count as unworthy. This Jesus calls us to live in community with one another. Jesus was a Jew and his disciples were Jews. As a man of his time Jesus would have spoken and understood Hebrew, Aramaic, and probably Greek. Where he was born, grew to manhood and conducted his ministry was a cultural stew and a cross roads of trade and beliefs.

The United States is a pluralistic nation made up of many religions - Christianity is one of them. We pride ourselves in the freedom of worship. It's one of our cherished values. Just last week in my home town of Canton, MI we joined a Hindu community in celebrating the dedication of their new temple. Their center can accommodate a thousand worshipers. Down the road from where I live is a Sikh temple where we visited a few months ago to better know our neighbors. Dearborn, MI (just 15 miles to our east) is home to the largest Arab community outside of the Mid East. Islam is their religion. We're all citizens of the United States, we're all neighbors and we all fly the same flag. I don't appreciate hate speech, fear tactics, or race baiting. When times are rough like they are now we search for someone to blame. This divides us and drives us apart. We're weaker as a country as a result.

What would Jesus say? I think Jesus would cry over our fearful bickering with one another. Jesus would meet hate with love. Jesus would meet ignorance with knowledge. Jesus would extend an open hand to the neighbor and not a clinched fist. Jesus would speak a kind word and offer a generous embrace to the stranger and the different among us. That's what I think Jesus would do. --Bob Orr

Burning the Quran

2010-09-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

September 8, 2010 - a note sent to the friends and members of Covenant Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles

Dear Readers,

The proposed burning of a Quran by a small far-right evangelical church in Gainesville, Florida saddens me beyond words.

I have emailed the church asking them to consider how this will affect our soldiers in Afghanistan - there's no doubt that radical Muslims will see these radical "Christians" as representative of Christianity in America, even as we tend to see radical Muslims as representative of Islam.

Anyway, this is a reminder of what I have long called Christianity's underbelly.

Most of us rarely, if ever, encounter it, and chances are that anyone on this mailing is unlikely to meet it, except in these rare moments when bizarre antics and seething hatred reach the news. Though just a small group in Gainesville, I'm grateful for the news coverage, because there's a lot of this twisted christianity in the backwoods and suburbs of America, and it needs to be brought to the light of day.

There really isn't much we can do - though Gainesville police have denied the church a burning permit. We live in free land, but a "church" like this needs to be reminded that freedom isn't license, that freedom requires responsibility.

But with the breaking news of a hate crime in Thousand Oaks - Swastikas and hate messages ... we need to be clear - there's a lot of hatred out there, and some of it is found within the ranks of American Christianity.

The only antidote to such distortions of the faith is, first, our alertness to such things, then a solid knowledge of Christian history with a good and careful reading of Scripture.

In Christ, for Christ and with Christ,

Tom

Merciful God, I pray thee to grant me, if it please thee, ardor to desire thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to know thee and skill to speak to the glory of thy name. Amen (Thomas Aquinas)

How Does God Encounter Us?

2010-08-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

How, then, does the wholly-other God encounter us?

In the text, when carefully read?

In Jesus, when humbly contemplated?

In prayer, when surrender is the heart of it?

In worship, that seeks nothing for the self?

in life, that is moved by compassion?

In death, when we encounter the absolute limits of self?

in eternity, when we encounter the absolute infinity of God's love?

Shuck and Jive: "A Church Out There For All of Us" --Trial of Rev. Jane Spahr

2010-08-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Shuck and Jive: "A Church Out There For All of Us" --Trial of Rev. Jane Spahr

Don't miss this fine blog.

Growing and Eating Your Own Carrots - by Bob Orr

2010-08-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

By Bob Orr

It was just this morning, early, about 7 am. I made my usual trek to my twenty-four square foot garden to cut some red zinnias for our living room, do a little watering and pull one carrot. I've waited since late May for this time of the year - the beginning of the carrot harvest. Since they're not all ready at the same time, I need to peek down and around green twenty inch bushy tops to examine the point where top gives way to root. Do I see a little bit of carrot above ground? That's a good sign. My gardening book says I can carefully push the soil away coming at the carrot from the side and test it's size and if not ready then replace the dirt. I'm not good at this procedure. This morning I got a good one! Bright orange, plump with a characteristic wide top and medium taper to the tip. After washing it off in the hose and cutting off the top, slowly I take the first bite. The crunch and flavor is a little fourth of July. This is not the carrot you bring home from the grocery - how long since picking?, where grown and packed?, how transported? No, this is a carrot grown lovingly and organically since May. This is a carrot not a minute out of it's earthy home. I crunch it up into little pieces and hold them in my mouth just to savor the flavor. It was eleven months ago since I had my last home grown carrot. I tickled the earth with a seed this Spring and here's my reward. It's worth the wait.

Howard L Rice Dies

2010-08-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

The church of Jesus Christ has lost an eminent scholar and a man of great heart.

Rev. Dr. Howard Leland Rice, San Francisco Theological Seminary chaplain and professor of ministry from 1969-97, died on Sunday, Aug. 8, in Claremont, Calif., at the age of 78. For more than 50 years, Rice served the larger Presbyterian Church as one of its most respected spiritual leaders.

Rice was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis prior to his appointment at SFTS and spent his time on the San Anselmo campus either on crutches or confined to a wheelchair. After Rice’s retirement, his diagnosis was changed from MS to spinal cord damage. Last spring he battled a stubborn bone infection for weeks, resulting in his decision to accept hospice care. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his family.

A memorial service honoring Rice’s life will take place Aug. 20 at 2:30 p.m. at Claremont Presbyterian Church.

In the early 1970s, when one of his students gave him a copy of Morton T. Kelsey’s The Other Side of Silence, Rice realized he needed to feed not only his mind, but also his soul. By the mid-1970s, Rice recruited other pastors and scholars in the Bay Area to help him lead spiritual retreats for local pastors.

For the next 20 years he helped Presbyterians and other Protestants discover spirituality within the Protestant-Reformed tradition. An expert in Presbyterian Polity, Rice was elected moderator of the 191st General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. in 1979. During his year as moderator, he organized three spirituality retreats throughout the country and encouraged each presbytery to send one delegate.

Rice was instrumental in supporting the establishment of “Companions on the Inner Way,” a retreat/conference that has served hundreds of pastors and lay persons. Rice played a significant role in developing SFTS’s pioneering program in spirituality. This led to the creation of the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction and the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Formation programs, which in turn prepared a cadre of spiritual directors within the Reformed Tradition.

“Howard had a huge heart for people, for ministry, and for the Church that he served so long and well,” said Dr. Elizabeth Liebert, SFTS dean and professor of spiritual life. “Always standing with the underdog, he was persistent to the point of stubbornness in defending them. He is beloved by hundreds of students, pastors and church folk, whose hopes and struggles he held dear. We mourn the loss of mentor, colleague, spiritual adviser, friend and consummate pastor.”

In 1991, Rice published the landmark book, Reformed Spirituality: An Introduction to Believers, and it continues to be widely read in seminaries throughout the United States. Rice was a man of great faith and possessed an enormous heart. His former students, colleagues, family and friends will always remember his thoughtful way and gentle words which conveyed “the living sense of God’s presence in daily life.”

To honor his retirement from SFTS in 1997, Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey presented a tribute to Rice before the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2007, SFTS trustee and alumna, Rev. Jackie Leonard, made a first gift to the seminary toward the Rice Family Chair in Christian Spirituality. In endowing this chair, Leonard sought to honor Rice and his wife Nancy, the late Rev. Wendy Rice Dreitcer and her husband, Dr. Andrew Deeter Dreitcer, and their longstanding contributions to the spiritual nurture of students, church leaders and congregations.

Rice graduated from Carroll College (Waukesha, Wis.) with a BA in history in 1953. He entered McCormick Theological Seminary in 1953, having just married Nancy Lee Zoerb. He graduated from McCormick with a BD in 1956. Rice and his wife had two children, Wendy and Amanda, both born after his seminary years. (Wendy, who earned a Master of Divinity from SFTS in 1983, died in 2004 from a brain tumor.)

Rice was ordained by the Presbytery of Winnebago on Aug. 20, 1956. His first call was as pastor of the House of Faith Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, where he remained through 1961. He served as pastor to Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Chicago from 1961-68.

Rice received a number of honors in his long and distinguished ministerial and teaching career, including honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Whitworth College (1978) and from his alma mater Carroll College (1980). In 1986 he was the recipient of the McCormick Theological Seminary Distinguished Alumnus Award. The SFTS board of trustees conferred on him the title of Professor of Ministry, Emeritus upon his retirement.

August 8, 2010 - Prayers of the Day

2010-08-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

O LORD our God,

We thank you for the ceaseless compassion that guides our steps through life … in the worst of times, and in the best of times, your grace is sufficient unto the needs of the day.

In our sorrows, LORD,

And in our fear.

In our confusion and in our frustration.

You are God, and to you we belong.

Though we are frequently lost, you find us.

Though death is the dark shadow upon our souls, Christ is the light of the world.

And to him, O God, we turn.

In his cross, we find comfort.

In his resurrection, we find hope.

In his ascension, we find promise.

O God, help us, this day, to be deeply and wonderfully centered in our Savior.

In a land where so many folks are weary of religion.

Tired of the ranting and raving of poorly trained preachers.

Tired of the lies that religion has to tell to stay in business.

Help us to be joyfully about the truth.

The truth of Jesus and his love.

Help us, we pray, to lean on the everlasting arms.

And for the Holy Spirit we continue to pray.

And with the Spirit, we trust.

Trust that you are at work in all things for good.

That in life and in death, we belong to you.

And by the Spirit, dear God, we choose the best and the brightest.

We will walk with Christ.

We will shine light in the darkness.

We will open doors and welcome one another.

We will speak kindly and live peaceably as much as possible.

And when we fail, we’ll admit it.

When we speak harshly, we’ll seek forgiveness.

And we’ll keep on learning, LORD.

Keep on loving.

Keep on hoping.

Because that’s your way.

You do not give up on us, O God.

And we will not give up on one another.

Because of the Holy Spirit.

And for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done …

An Email Sent to the Congregation

2010-08-05T07:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Readers,

As you probably know by now, Prop 8 has been overturned.

The Session (governing body) of Covenant Presbyterian Church, agreed to oppose Proposition 8, and when California voters narrowly approved it, the Session came out in favor of overturning it.

While the Session is sensitive to religions questions on the matter, the Session is clear that we're dealing here with a question of equality, something Judge Vaughn Walker affirmed in his decision.

To read a review of Walker's decision, check out a "Faith and Reason" column by clicking HERE.

Covenant Church has a long and proud history of affirming civil rights. When California voters overturned a legislative decision (The Rumford Fair Housing Act, 1963)) and approved Prop 14 (1964) to retain housing covenants (restrictions on selling a home to minorities), Covenant's Session rose to the occasion and agreed that such covenants were simply wrong. Ultimately, the courts of California (1966), and the US Supreme Court (1967), ruled that housing covenants were unconstitutional.

I am personally grateful for Judge Walker's decision, and I am confident that America is at its best when opening doors and windows of freedom and equality. To read my personal reflections about the decision and the quick response of the Mormon and Roman Catholic Churches to the ruling, click HERE.

Blessings and Peace.

Tom

Overturning of Prop 8

2010-08-05T07:12:00.001-07:00

We live in democracy, not a theocracy. Right now, Mormon and Roman Catholic leadership is walking the plank on this one. Their position is irrational and biblically and theological flawed. Ultimately, their LGBT members will be heard, and America's basic sense of fairness will prevail.

I want to live in a land of freedom, freedom for Mormons and Roman Catholics to manage their own households as they please, so that I can manage my own household, too.

America is always at its best when expanding freedom and equality. There are always those factions who see freedom and equality as a threat, and they cry wolf again and again, or like Chicken Little, run around shouting about the sky falling.

The ruling in Iowa by a conservative judiciary is a harbinger of the future. When and if Prop 8 goes to the Supreme Court, I'm confident that even the most conservative judges will see it as Judge Vaughn Walker does, though Justices Scalia and Thomas will likely dissent.

The overturning of Prop 8 is a good day for the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Catholic Workers Hospitality Kitchen, Los Angeles - August 3, 2010

2010-08-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from today, August 3, 2010

Greetings from one of the courtyard critters!

Lots of Bagles to cut ...

Courtyard cheer ...

Taking a break ...

Clean up ...

A Servant of the Lord ...

For more information, click HERE.

July 25, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-07-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you, O God, for this day.

Your day.

The LORD's day.

A time to worship you … to get our house in order.

The LORD's Day …

It’s not about us, and it feels right and good, to step aside from ourselves.

We’re tired of our self-absorption, O God.

Deliver us, we pray, from our little worlds of me and mine.

Retool our hearts with your Holy Spirit …

Conform us to the image of Christ.

Forgive our sins.

Restore us … refresh us … and send us into your world with healing for the nations …

And give us, we pray, a full and joyful measure of your Holy Spirit.

Creator of the heavens and the earth,

We thank you.

For the wonders of our planet.

The birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

All creatures, great and small.

For you made and love them all.

Grant us, we pray, kindness toward nature.

Forgive the greed that rips a rain forest to shreds.

The thoughtlessness that fills the seas with garbage.

The manipulation of soil with pesticides and herbicides.

The cruelty of industrial farming.

Filling the food chain with hormones and antibiotics and strange chemicals, altering the shape of life, in ways we do not know.

With your Spirit, O God, give us good eyes, eyes to see the natural around us … the beauty of the sky and the delicate curve of a gull’s wing … the power of the wolf and the innocence of the lamb.

Give us ears to hear the birds of dawn as they greet the day with joyful song, and from them, O God, teach us to greet the day with song, giving thanks for our lives, and trusting you to provide what’s needed every day of life … all the way to eternity.

Give us, we pray, a sense of balance.

It’s not about us.

It’s about your world.

Nor what we want.

But what we need.

And we need you.

We need a finer compassion and a richer love.

Our hearts need to be fleshed out with Christ.

Thank you, Dear God,

For friends and family.

For pets and gardens.

For pots and pans.

For salt and pepper and oregano and rosemary and thyme and coriander.

Thank you for a good bottle of wine.

And good music.

And faith, hope and love.

And thank you, most of all, for Jesus our LORD.

Who taught us to pray, saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done …

To My Friends ...

2010-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Theological Friendships

2010-07-05T08:28:00.001-07:00

I have some friends, and mostly we see eye-to-eye on the issues of life.

But that hasn't always been the case.

I've had good friends who stood in a place quite different than I did. Most of those friendships were brief, but some have endured for years.

I've tried to think through what those enduring friendships have been like, and why they endured in spite of differing takes on things.

In some respects, we simply liked each other, and respected each other's integrity - that we worked at hard at what we believed, and we sought to live our lives faithfully in and through the love of Christ.

And while we might kid the daylights out of one another, our conversations were marked with a lot of listening and "I understand your point of view a little more clearly now."

I've learned that it's possible to understand someone's point of view and still not agree, but it's harder to vilify someone when you understand and respect them.

In terms of my friendships, understanding and respect came from a lot of early-morning breakfasts with ham and eggs and lots of coffee. "Okay, I'll see ya' again in two weeks." And looking back, humor played a huge roll as well - jokes and banter were as important as the ham and eggs.

In reality, I think such friendships are rare. Mostly, we hang around with those who stand in our corner. Makes sense. We like those who like what we like.

But Jesus reminds us that such friendship, or love, is no big deal. What's really a big deal is "loving our enemies."

I think Jesus chooses the word "enemy" to make something clear to us - that love can be far and beyond similarities and commonalities, and that such love is deeply ethical in how we view and treat one another.

I hold my convictions firmly - I guess that's what makes them convictions. But I've enjoyed the honest criticism of others who hold their convictions with equal firmness. But when we "love our enemy," we refuse to make the final move - that "I'm right and you're wrong." A friendship of differing views can endure when we bow before the mystery of God's grace and love - that we're both servants of the Most High God, both driven by honest and Spirit-impelled motives. Though our instincts want to bring closure to the argument, "You're wrong; I'm right!", we refuse to make that final move.

And with that, I've enjoyed some remarkable friendships over the years.

But can this be translated into an entire denomination where practices are at stake?

Where the question of ordination is on the table?

To be or not to be?

There are sane and reasonable voices who yet champion more conversation and better listening.

And while that might make for interesting conversations over ham and eggs, it hardly helps us out of the impasse of practice - to ordain LGBT persons or not.

Yet others who say, "The time for listening is done. We have listened to one another, and we understand one another. We're just in different places."

My heart aches for my LGBT friends, and when someone (usually straight) suggests that we need more time, I usually think, "Well, that's easy for YOU to say."

I offer no answers here.

Anyone who has read my previous postings know that I'm short on answers for our current situation.

Local option?

Gracious separation?

While I might enjoy friendships with folks of other persuasions, and benefit from lively discussion, I'm still left, as they are, with the question of practice.

And that's the divide for the denomination.

As I see it.

Don't Be Afraid

2010-06-14T09:05:00.001-07:00

Never fear the grace of love to lead us aright along the byways and highways of life.

Love opens doors, and at first, like a child frightened of a stranger, an open door frightens us … for it’s a big world out there on the other side of the door, and it’s full of strange languages and cultures and people and needs … and most of all, filled with God.

Love always leads us to God in the strange and wonderful places of life.

And sometimes even dangerous places. We don’t live in a fairy-tale world; Jesus said to us, “Take up your cross.” But in the cross, we find Jesus; in the cross, we find grace; in the cross, we find the meaning and purpose of our life.

Love can be trusted.

Jesus trusted the Father’s love all the way to the cross. Yet even Jesus was afraid and questioned the faithfulness of God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The open door frightened him, too.

But in the end, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” In the end, God!

Jesus invites us to trust love and to walk through the open doors God sets before us – doorways that lead to engagement and service and sacrifice and love upon love, as we look around and discover God in front of us, behind us, beside us, above us, beneath us, and within us.

For there is nothing in all of this world, or the world to come, that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD.

Sometimes I’m afraid of love.

Afraid of the commitment it requires, the changes it evokes and the challenges it offers.

But in commitment, in the changes wrought by the Spirit, and the challenges of faith, we discover communion with God.

Let us then, without fear, love God with every fiber of our being, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves … for therein, everything that counts is realized and fulfilled.

Indeed, a great love is our pathway through the open doors to wholeness and peace.

Tom

Life and Death

2010-06-09T10:19:00.001-07:00

From our Youth Director, Deondra Morris ... a thoughtful, powerful, piece - about death and life, with her permission.

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Today has been an interesting day. Interesting because when I woke up this morning only one thing was on my agenda... 8am meeting, and then entire day to live life. That's it. no planning, just whatever, whenever, and with whomever I pleased. To find adventure, to live life to the fullest. Isn't that what we all subconciously ask for? I even posted my non-plans on my fb feed this morning, but oh how circumstances change you, and it's strange to me how those circumstances doesn't even necessarily have to pertain to you as an individual. One very prodominate charateristic I possess is I have a heart for people. I love the "unlovable" as they so often seem to call themselves. I'm drawn to these people and that feeling rushed over me as if I were drowning in it this morning.

This morning, while at the Santa Monica Pier, I watched a man draw his last breath. Little did I know that the seat I chose would provide me with a perfect view of the entire scene. I watched as the rescue squad performed CPR on his lifeless body, as they moved him from the truck onto the ground and his arms and legs fell limp. I watched as the ambulance pulled up with the gurney, but drove away empty, no sirens. I watched as they covered his body with an orange tarp and the police officers, forensics and resuce team spoke about the incident. These images being jolted into my mind shot me to a place far from where I actually was. This man was dead. He didn't get to have a life adventure today. He didn't have any family or friends around. Did he have any family or friends? Did he have anyone in his life that he knew loved him or that they knew he loved them? What were his last thoughts? Did he die alone? Did he have plans for the day? Did he have hopes and dreams unfulfilled? These are questions that I will never know the answer to.

My day has continued. I had a wonderful lunch with a friend, I walked the Promanade and listened to a young boy play his guitar, I felt the cool ocean wind, I talked with my mom, dad, and sister, I came home to great roommates and a cozy apartment... all of these things I take for granted was noticed today. and for what? Because a man died?... well, yes. My answer to my own question made me realize something - death isn't ever in vain. It effects people. I've been effected over and over by death and each time I take away something different. My first encounter was my Mimi - and one of the last conversations we had she and I were laying on the bed and she told me to "Live each day as if it mattered, because it does. No matter what we're going through, how bad it is or if things are sailing smoothly - just live." We often times get so caught up in the details of life, we forget how amazing the rain sounds or how the sun feels or the beauty of a flower. We forget to tell and show people that we love them. We shut the ones we need the most out of our lives because we can't bare to smile in the face of adversity, instead we shelter in the things/people that allow us to continue hiding. We become fake. And yes, I do say "we".

People ask me over and over, "why are you so happy?" "How can you deal with this?"... and this is the reason: I am never promised tomorrow, so why worry about it. Yes, we have the anticipation that tomorrow is going to be there, even next week, next month, next year. But what about today? Did I breathe? Did I smile and laugh? Did I tell someone how amazing they are and they are loved? That's what fulfills my day - and my life. I never know when I'm going to draw my last breath and I dont' want my last breath to be one of pain, suffering, doubt, confusion, hurt, selfishness, and pride. I want it to be one of happiness, love, contintment, fulfillment and confirmation. Through my life I want to love people - love the "unlovable", live life and take others on adventures, and when my time comes, through my death, I want to inspire people to live life to have that effect on the people around them.

I had an encounter with a man today, whom I have never met, never exchanged a smile or a greeting, nor even knew his name, but he effected me.

May 9, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-05-09T15:29:00.001-07:00

We pray, O God, today for mothers all around the world … giving thanks for faithfulness and love and devotion and hard work and all the things we cherish …

Especially, we pray for the mothers who have lost a child by war … or with drugs … or disease … may your consoling grace be upon them, and may your love bless their tears.

We pray for women, who without children of their own, have cared for and nurtured others … and we thank you for them.

We pray for women who haven’t been able to respond well to the needs of their families … for whatever reason, O God … may your kindly hand be upon them and bless their troubled hearts.

On this good day, O God, we all step back for a moment … and we say Thank You!
Thank you for those who love us, and those whom we love.
Thank you for making us a part of Christ, and Christ a part of us.
Thank you for Covenant on the Corner and all of our memories here.
Thank you for the future coming our way.
In this life, and in the life to come.

Thank you … 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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread …

May 2, 2010 - Prayers of the People

2010-05-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

In this place, O God, uniquely devoted to you,

You meet us, with grace and peace and give us hope.

Here, we breath deeply.

The air is fresh.

The air is clean.

You are here!

We pray for our friends today.

We pray for our families.

We pray for the church of Jesus Christ all around the world.

We pray for Muslims and Jews.

For Hindus and Buddhists.

We pray for people of faith everywhere.

People of good will and mercy.

People who dream of a new day.

Who sacrifice to make life sacred.

Who see the best and reach for it.

We pray for our firefighters and police officers.

For mayors and council members.

Governors and legislators.

We pray for judges and for attorneys.

For engineers and scientists.

Artists and poets.

Musicians and dancers.

Movie-makers and actors.

We pray for Covenant on the Corner.

We pray for our Preschool.

We pray for Judi and Torrey and our teachers.

For Michelle and Edgar.

Colleen and Clare and George.

Mikal and Deondra.

O LORD our God, we thank you for these lives of ours.

To love and be loved.

To take a deep breath and smell the ocean.

To look about and see the mountains.

To live in a great city.

With so many great people.

And our faith, O God.

That we should know you.

That you should know us.

In this place right now … a glorious mystery.

We didn’t choose you; we know that.

You chose us.

You brought us into Christ, when we would have been in a thousand other places.

You’ve gathered us form the distant places.

You have brought us home.

To your heart.

To your Table.

You have washed us in Christ.

You have given us eyes to see the kingdom.

Ears to hear the gospel.

A heart to believe.

And a life to live.

All from you, O God.

All of it from you.

And we give it all right back to you.

As best we can.

For your glory.

And for your honor.

It is our final prayer, O God,

That we would serve you well.

That we would be the light of the world.

The salt of the earth.

Faithful to Christ.

And loving toward one another.

So keep us growing in Christ.

Keep us moving along.

Fill our hearts with his grace.

Enlighten our minds with your word.

To you, O God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

All honor and glory, now and forever more!

Amen and Amen!

Two Kinds of Justice

2010-04-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

There are two kinds of justice in the Bible.*

Legal

Social

Legal justice is the letter of the law and is restrictive and punitive.

Social justice is the compassion of God, God’s justice to rebalance human relationships, with a special focus on lifting up those who have been put low by society.

We always need legal justice: no texting, for example, while driving, and stop when the light is red, and if you violate either law, you'll be fined, or worse!

Social justice is broader and deeper - it's about the maintenance of life based upon the Kingdom of God.

It's about caring.

Kindness.

Generosity.

Opening doors of opportunity and keeping things in balance.

The Bible has dozens of verses about strangers and aliens, widows and orphans - because they're the ones who are usually forgotten when social justice weakens, and often the ones who are hurt when legal justice is overly emphasized.

Jesus paid special attention to the “outsider,” and he paid quite a price for that. Those who were into "legal justice" (Pharisees) didn't like the way he showed love and acceptance to those who had been excluded because of disease, physical handicaps or ethnic and social status.

Legal justice is important, but it's of limited application.

Social justice is huge, and it has the widest kind of application - in terms of how we love God and love our neighbor.

People get angry, I think, when they focus too much on legal justice, trying to apply legal justice to situations that require social justice.

By way of example, in the South years ago, legal justice required people of color to sit in the back of the bus. When Rosa Parks was just too tired to walk to the back of the bus, she was arrested because of legal justice.

I think by now we all realize that legal justice – justice by the letter of the law – falls short. What was needed for Rosa Parks was social justice, a justice that sees life from a higher perspective.

Without social justice, legal justice becomes hard-hearted and small-minded. It’s social justice that transforms our hearts.

Social justice is where Jesus lives.

*Many thanks to my friend, Kathy Verbiest Baldock.

Column - The Good-bye Year - Los Angeles magazine

2010-04-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

Column - The Good-bye Year - Los Angeles magazine

An excellent piece of writing, and the tale of our sorrows, as life unfolds.

I love the final note: "there is no closure," and who want it anyway. For love, there is no closure - only the ebb and flow of memories and that tears that rightly belong to life!

Puns for Educated Minds????

2010-04-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

PUNS FOR EDUCATED MINDS

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

15. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

16. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran

17. A backward poet writes inverse.

18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

Bulletin Bloopers

2010-03-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

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The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes snacks and meals.
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The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
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Ladies , don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community.. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again , ' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it , we have a nursery downstairs.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
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At the evening service tonight , the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans , bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you will want remembered.
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The church will host an evening of fine dining , super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
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The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon..
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge so up yours.'
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March 21, 2010 - Prayer

2010-03-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

How grateful we are, O God, for the gift of Christ … for love beyond all limits … for grace, mercy and peace … for hope and courage … for wisdom to guide us, and faith to help us through the dark moments of life … for love to lift us beyond self-interest.

How grateful we are, O God … for the little Bethlehem baby boy and the angels who sang to the shepherds in the hills … for the wise men who made the long journey to follow a star and find a king … for John the Baptist in the wilderness who preached a new day to the people and baptized our LORD in Jordan’s water …

How grateful we are, O God … for the Rabbi who called James and John, Peter and Andrew … for the gentle man at the well in Samaria who talked to a lonely woman … for a kindly man who stood beneath a tree and saw a little man up in its branches … for the daring man who challenged the powers of his day, who refused to knuckle under to the conservative forces of Rome and it’s temple collaborators … the powers that feared all change and killed the prophets.

How grateful we are, O God … for the man who stood silently in Pilate’s courtroom … who bore the lash of the whip and the shame of crucifixion … for the man who walked into the arms of death and felt its sting for our sake.

How grateful we are, O God … for the great Son of God who went to hell, to the far-reaches of death and despair, to the place of no-return, to give release there to all the prisoners … that none might be lost, that all would be found, and everything made new.

Help us, this day, O God, to receive this Christ.

The Christ of the Cross … that we might be brave in our faith and bold in our mission.

And with him, and through him, to live your kingdom …
To talk to the lonely and stand for the truth.
To confront the conservative forces that drive power and religion … political power and religious rituals that have long forgotten their true purpose to serve the people and protect the children.

Help us, we pray, with a full measure of your Holy Spirit, to make this Lenten journey really count … to stand before the cross and feel the crisis – to hear the deep questions you pose to us … questions that ruffle our feathers and unsettle us, so that you can transform our spirit and move us along the road to a better humanity and a richer faith.

Do not leave us alone, O God, even when we turn away from the light of Christ. Don’t not leave us alone, O God, even when we steel our hearts and close our minds to you.
Do not leave us to our own devices, for therein we die.
Do not leave us alone with our small ideas and shallow loves.
Do not leave us alone in our pride and our prejudice.
Come to us, we pray, LORD Jesus, for we need your grace, your forgiveness, and your light to find ourselves and become truly human.

How grateful we are, O God … 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, thy will be done …

Images of the Church

2010-01-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

The church is like a spring in the wilderness.
It’s not the spring itself.
It’s the water.
But if we’re thirsty, we go to the Spring.
If we’re thirsty for greatness, we go to the church!
Not for the church itself, but for the water God gives there.
The stories … the liturgies … the images and the seasons … the rites and the rituals … preaching and praying … in all of it, the greatness of God!
The Spring may be in a muddy field.
And oasis in a dry land.
And we’ll get a little dirty making our way to the Spring.
The church, you see, isn’t pure.
But the water is pure.
And on bended knee,
And with faithful hope,
We will drink.
We will find God finding us.
The soul’s thirst will be assuaged.
And the soul will become great!

The Church of Jesus Christ

2010-01-21T06:09:00.001-08:00

We compliment one another …

Some can sing and some can pray with a special gift that blesses someone else.

Some can teach and some can preach.

Some have a way with dollars and cents.

Some can plan and organize.

Some have an extraordinary sensitivity and compassion.

Some are visionary.

Some are filled with the passions of justice and social reform.

Some dream dreams and see visions of God.

Some are quiet and some are loud.

Some are hard and some are soft.

Some are heaven-drawn.

Some are earth-anchored.

Some love the past.

Some love the future.

But take all the someones, and we have

The sum of it.

We all add up to the church of Jesus Christ.

And he loves us all.

And needs us all.

To finish his work!

T-bone Steaks, Yellow Roses and Friendship

2010-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

A wonderful story brought a lump to my throat ...

I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn't hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 57 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories.

He often came with me and almost every time he'd pretend to go off and look for something special. I knew what he was up to. I'd always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands.

He knew I loved yellow roses. With a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items and leave, but even grocery shopping was different since he had passed on.

Shopping for one took time, a little more thought than it had for two.

Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how he had loved his steak.

Suddenly a woman came beside me. She was blonde, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit. I watched as she picked up a large package of T-bones, dropped them in her basket.. hesitated, and then put them back. She turned to go and once again reached for the pack of steaks.

She saw me watching her and she smiled. 'My husband loves T-bones, but honestly, at these prices, I don't know.'

I swallowed the emotion down my throat and met her pale blue eyes.

'My husband passed away eight days ago,' I told her. Glancing at the package in her hands, I fought to control the tremble in my voice. 'Buy him the steaks. And cherish every moment you have together.'

She shook her head and I saw the emotion in her eyes as she placed the package in her basket and wheeled away

I turned and pushed my cart across the length of the store to the dairy products. There I stood, trying to decide which size milk I should buy. A Quart, I finally decided and moved on to the ice cream. If nothing else, I could always fix myself an ice cream cone.

I placed the ice cream in my cart and looked down the aisle toward the front. I saw first the green suit, then recognized the pretty lady coming towards me. In her arms she carried a package. On her face was the brightest smile I had ever seen. I would swear a soft halo encircled her blonde hair as she kept walking toward me, her eyes holding mine.

As she came closer, I saw what she held and tears began misting in my eyes. 'These are for you,' she said and placed three beautiful long stemmed yellow roses in my arms. 'When you go through the line, they will know these are paid for.' She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek, then smiled again. I wanted to tell her what she'd done, what the roses meant, but still unable to speak, I watched as she walked away as tears clouded my vision

I looked down at the beautiful roses nestled in the green tissue wrapping and found it almost unreal. How did she know? Suddenly the answer seemed so clear. I wasn't alone.

Oh, you haven't forgotten me, have you? I whispered, with tears in my eyes. He was still with me, and she was his angel.

Every day be thankful for what you have and who you are.
(Please read all of this, it is really nice)

This is a simple request. If you appreciate life, send this to your friends, including! the person that sent it to you.

Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings. Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.

Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible. Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.

Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise. There are many who are bedridden.

Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned, tempers are short, and my children are so loud.

Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.

Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced.

Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry.

Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work. There are many who have no job.

Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest.

Thank you, Lord, for life.

Pass this on to the friends you know. It might help a bit to make this world a better place to live, right? A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift.. A friend is someone to treasure.

For friendship is a gift. A friend is someone who fills our lives with Beauty, Joy and Grace and makes the world we live in a better and happier place.

YOU ARE MY FRIEND!

God bless you and yours.

Now send this to every friend you have and don't forget me

November 29, 2009 - Prayers of the People - Advent 1

2009-11-30T05:53:00.000-08:00

Help us, O God, to be a people of praise!

Full of love and grace.

With open arms and kindly ways.

To be a people who can see the world for what it will be.

A people who live for Christ.

We thank you, O God, for a season called Advent … for the power of hope …

For your promises to Abraham and Sarah …

Your promises to David and to Solomon …

And your promise in the prophet Jeremiah – that the days are surely coming when justice will prevail and righteousness govern the affairs of humankind.

Teach us with your Holy Spirit, O God, that your Word is no pipedream – it is the world that lives in illusion; Christ is reality.

O LORD our God, give us a great strength today, a Christ-like strength:

To live our lives as best we can.

To be responsible for our corner of the world.

To savor life’s goodness.

To enjoy friends and family.

To appreciate the smallest blessings of life.

To look upon one another with favor.

To forgive quickly and never hold a grudge.

To flow around obstacles, to bend and to adjust.

To love deeply as we want others to love us.

To forgive our debtors as you have forgiven our debts.

To share with others our daily bread.

Remind us, O God, that you are at work in our lives.

That you are at work in all things for good.

Teach us that we are yours, that nothing can separate us from your great love, given to us in Jesus Christ our LORD.

Fill us anew with your Holy Spirit:

That we might have confidence.

That we could leave here today filled with hope and peace of mind.

Knowing that we’re headed in the right direction.

That our lives count.

That our love and worship make a true and lasting difference in this world …

To make a child smile today.

To heal a breached relationship, or at least, to try.

To email a friend with whom we’ve lost touch.

To know that we can always back up and start all over again … that spilled milk can be wiped up … and harsh words can be forgotten.

Sometimes, LORD, we’re like an old piece of clay that’s been sitting out in the sun for many a day – our attitudes have hardened, and our love has grown brittle.

Sometimes, LORD, we just walk away from you … maybe we show up here, but our hearts are somewhere else.

Sometimes we’re weighed down with worries … we get lost in our fears of what the future might hold …

Sometimes, LORD, we’re just stuck in ourselves … me, myself and mine … and we don’t know how to get out.

We need your tender care.

We need your everlasting arms wrapped around us today.

We need your love more than ever.

We cannot do this on our own, O LORD.

Come to us, we pray, in mercy.

Reveal to us your love.

Heal our wounds.

Restore our courage.

Put joy into our hearts.

And brings us close to Christ.

In his name we pray,

Saying together, with one heart and mind, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

November 22, 2009 - Prayers of the People

2009-11-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you, O God, for the gift of life.

To see and to hear, to taste, touch and smell.

We count our blessings, O God.

We try to name them, one-by-one.

But numbers fail us …

And so does time …

To count those who have loved us all along the journey,

And those whom we have loved,

With whom we have laughed and cried,

And found our way.

Today, we give thanks:

We thank you for your love, O God!

For the grace of Christ.

For the church of the ages – for all who have lived for the sake of love, who’ve made this a better world, who’ve stood against bigotry and prejudice, who’ve challenged kings and queens and prime ministers and presidents – who have put their lives on the line for others.

And for millions more who serve quietly without fame or fortune.

Teachers and attorneys, doctors and nurses.

Police officers and fire fighters.

Ambulance drivers and tug boat captains.

Train engineers and truck drivers.

Tool and die makers, and computer programmers.

The guy who cuts the French fries at In n Out.

The gal who checks us out at Trader Joe’s.

A whole world of people, O God, who make the world go around.

For all that is gentle, O God.

For all that is beautiful, and all that is good.

For simple things and profound things.

For the stars above, and the splash of a wave.

For Gramma’s pumpkin pie recipe and Grampa’s silly jokes.

For a box of old photographs and a bundle of love-letters tied in a blue ribbon.

For computers and email and social networks, too.

For Facebook and Twitter and Myspace and a thousand ways to stay in touch.

For cell phones that tell us where we are.

And most of all, for Christ, who tells us who we are.

For we are yours, O God.

In body, and in soul,

In life, and in death.

Now, and forever more.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

November 15, 2009 - Prayers of the People

2009-11-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

Beloved God, whom we know in Christ Jesus our LORD.

We are grateful that you have made us a part of Christ, and Christ a part of us.

You have rescued us from the dark side.

You have forgiven us unconditionally through the blood of Christ.

Even as you refashion us into the likeness of Christ.

Be with us today, we pray.

Bless our worship with grace.

And our service with purpose.

Don’t let us drift, O God.

The tides of time sweep in so many directions.

Here and there, we find ourselves being tugged.

Anchor us, we pray, in Christ.

Keep us close to your love.

And close to one another.

We pray, O God, for the families of those who lost their lives at Fort Hood. May your Holy Spirit comfort them with your divine mercy.

We pray for the man who pulled the trigger.

We pray for Muslims in the military, and Muslims in our nation.

We pray that love will prevail over hatred.

That understanding will overcome suspicion.

That love will make a way through the tangled web of human emotion and failure.

We pray, O God, for our Designated Pastor Nominating Committee … and for Sandra Mader from our Presbytery.

We trust that your Holy Spirit will be with them, guiding them in their study and in their work. Keep them looking heavenward, and keep them on their knees.

We thank you, O God, for what has been.

We thank you for here and now.

And in Jesus’ name, we thank for what shall be.

For there is yet more work to be done.

Lives to be won.

Justice to be lived.

And love to be given.

We’re not up to the task all by ourselves, O God!

We need your Holy Spirit.

We need heaven’s help.

We need grace.

We need you, O God!

Help Covenant, dear God, to a beacon of light to the world.

That our light would so shine, that Westchester and Los Angeles and the whole world might see our good works and give glory to you, our Father in heaven.

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, thy will be done …

November 8, 2009, Prayers of the People

2009-11-08T15:06:00.001-08:00

Draw near to us, O God.

Let us see your face in Christ, and in Christ, hear your Word.

By your Holy Spirit, O God,

Bring rest to the weary and hope to the forlorn.

Healing to the broken and courage to the fearful.

Restore the fallen, O God, and reclaim the lost.

Meet us this morning with your superior love and your infinite glory, that we might flee the lies of this world and love the truth of Christ all the more.

That in Christ, we might be the light of the world,

And the salt of the earth.

This is our prayer, O God,

This is our desire.

That we would see Christ this morning.

And be made anew in him.

This is our prayer, O God,

This is our desire.

That we would be made new in Christ!

And Christ made new in us.

LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,

Take away from us all that would distort communion with your Father … take away the fear that magnifies our need, so that we might be fearless in our defense of others and untiring in our work to bring peace to our world.

Take away bitter memories that entrap us in self-pity …

Take away the grinding pressure of remorse … that we might cry no more over spilled milk, but cry all the more for the plight of the poor and the thousands of children who this day will die, cut short in life by political cruelty.

Take away all that embitters us, we pray …

That we might have a sweeter disposition …

Take away from us all false loves,

That we might love you with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind and lovr our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Take away all self-centeredness, that we might set free to serve as best we can.

Take away from us, we pray, all foolish dreams,

That we might apply ourselves to the years of our life.

To work and to work hard.

To laugh and to laugh deeply.

To expend our lives for worthy causes and high purpose.

To give back to life more than we take.

To add rather than subtract.

Build up rather than tear down.

That we might bring cheer to our homes and workplaces.

Peace to a troubled neighbor.

Hope to a co-worker.

That we might be a little Christ for those who know us.

And find our place in Christ, and find Christ in our place.

Today, O God, in this place called Covenant.

Covenant on the Corner.

Covenant on the move.

We thank you …

We thank you for all who serve you with glad hearts and joyful spirits.

Our musicians and our singers.

Our liturgists and our Sunday School teachers.

Our Deacons and our Elders.

Our greeters and our ushers.

Presbyterian Women and Groups Alive.

Youth ministries and Canines@Covenant.

Michelle and Edgar.

All who are here Sunday-by-Sunday to praise your name and to learn your Word.

Thanks be to you, O God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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

Remembering the Gospel - a note from Spurgeon

2009-11-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends in Christ,

There are times when I forget the gospel.

Have you ever been forgetful like me?

Maybe not, or maybe so.

When I forget the gospel, I like to read Spurgeon, and if you’re not sure who he is, just google “Spurgeon sermons,” and you’ll find an amazing world unfolding at your fingertips.

Anyway, here’s a piece for today from Spurgeon, on prayer:

"Behold, he prayeth."—Acts 9:11.

PRAYERS are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. "Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle," implies that they are caught as they flow.

The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye; but "prayer is the falling of a tear." Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah's court, and are numbered with "the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high."

Think not that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob's ladder is lofty, but our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry rounds. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. "He forgetteth not the cry of the humble." True, He regards not high looks and lofty words; He cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; He listens not to the swell of martial music; He regards not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His memory; He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up therefrom.

"Faith asks no signal from the skies,

To show that prayers accepted rise,

Our Priest is in His holy place,

And answers from the throne of grace."

Tom

November 1, 2009 - Prayers of the People

2009-11-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

LORD, help us to see beyond the moment …

Beyond the years …

Beyond the temporary joys and sorrows of life.

Help us, we pray, to see you.

High and lifted up … above and beyond …

Yet within and at hand.

Help us, we pray, to live bravely and faithfully,

To love kindness,

To do justice and walk humbly with you, our God.

Help us, we pray, to cut through the fog of materialism, the pride and the passions of the daily grind.

Help us, we pray, to be positive in all things, for you are at work in all things, for good …

Help us, we pray, to be patient in a hurried world.

To be loving in a culture turned in upon itself.

Help us, we pray, to detest war and love peace.

Help us, we pray, to do more than pray for our soldiers and their safety; help us to work and pray for the end of war – the end of armaments, the end of violence, that the children of the world might grow up in a world of peace.

Help us, we pray, to ignore the cynics who laugh at our vision of a world made new … those who scoff at peace and would, all over again, put your son on trial and sentence him to death.

Help us, we pray, to be bold in our affirmations of faith in Christ and brave in our commitments to work out his peace in our time!

Help us, we pray, to remember the Saints – those who’ve gone before us and have fought the good fight …

Help us, we pray, to continue their work …

To further their vision of a world without tears …

Help us, we pray, to be so faithful to Christ that generations to come will call us saints and number us among those who led the way.

In the simplest of ways, O God, help us to live appreciatively in your world … to savor the food and drink you provide … to see how blue the sky can be, how large the ocean is, how grand the mountains and the rolling prairies.

Help us, we pray:

To love all creatures, great and small, for you have made them all.

To take nothing for granted.

To value every day.

To honor those who love us.

To forgive quickly and let bygones be bygones.

To smile easily and laugh deeply.

To bring cheer to our world.

To stand by the sorrowing.

To be quick to take someone’s hand.

To say, “I love you” and say it often.

To work hard.

To be faithful to those who employ us.

And faithful to those who work for us.

Dear Holy Spirit, open our hearts this morning to the grace of Christ, that we might love him all the more.

That Covenant on the Corner would be filled with a radiant love, a joyful love … the love of Jesus the Christ … your Son and our Savior.

Who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth …

October 25, 2009 Prayers of the People

2009-10-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

We thank you, O God, for the joys of life:

Ten thousand things and counting …

A million things and more …

A bird singing like crazy outside our bedroom window, on a mission to awaken the world …

The first sip of coffee in the wee morning hours …

Breakfast at Dinah’s with a friend …

Drivers who back off and let us shift lanes …

Fire engines roaring on by, sirens wailing, warning us to get out of their way, because they have important work to do …

O LORD, we thank you, for:

Children who love us …

Parents who guide us …

Teachers to teach us …

Shoes that fit …

A pathway to walk …

Tasks to be done …

A Bible to read …

A church called Covenant …

And Jesus Christ our LORD …

We thank you, O God, for our elders and for our deacons …

For former pastors who taught us your Word …

And today, O God, we begin a season of prayer for our Designated Pastor Nominating Committee …

We will soon place upon their hearts, O God, a great task …

A burden … to find our next pastor.

Help them carry that burden lightly, with a full measure of your Holy Spirit to guide them …

That in the heat of thought and discussion, they will quickly turn to you in prayer … seeking your counsel at every turn of the way.

Remind them, O God, and remind us all, that we live, not by our own devices, but by your divine providence.

Not by our cleverness, but by the power of your Spirit.

Not in the wisdom of the world, but in the ways of faith, hope and love.

Not for our own comfort or personal interests, but for the glory of Jesus Christ and the wellbeing of the world.

We thank you, O God, for the Reformers: Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox … for their determination to reform the church, to awaken the church from a long, dark, slumber … to re-center the church in Jesus Christ and Scripture, and to help every believer discover their place in the kingdom of God on earth – the priesthood of all believers unto one another, standing between heaven and earth, holding up the world to God, and sharing God with the world.

Help us, we pray, to be a part of the Reformation today … to be creative and energetic in our faith, seeking the furthermore, going deeper, stretching higher, reaching wider … daring to think in new ways … never afraid … always courageous, ever bold, unflinching in our love for you and our love of neighbor … guided by Christ in our pursuit of peace and our quest for justice.

We thank you, dear God, for the gospel … your gift to us … a gift of infinite meaning and eternal endurance … a gift forged in Bethlehem’s cradle and on Calvary’s cross … a gift refined in the darkness of the tomb and on a journey to hell … a gift revealed in the resurrection on the Third Day … a gift assured in the Ascension and the testimony of angels … that Christ reigns with the Father, pleads our cause and intercedes for us, and when times are right, Christ shall return, with the blast of a trumpet, to finish the work and turn the kingdom over to you, O God, and to preside with you, in the new heaven and the new earth, where ever tear is wiped away by your very hand, and death will be no more!

We pray this 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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

October 18, 2009 Prayers of the People

2009-10-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

Eternal God, whom we know in Jesus the Christ, our LORD and our Savior. By the power of the Holy Spirit …

Honor and glory,

Praise and blessing,

Forever and forever.

Thank you, O God, for bringing us to faith in Jesus.

Sealing his love upon our hearts

With baptism and the LORD's Supper.

Thank you, O God, for the cloud of witnesses surrounding us …

Millions who’ve gone before us …

Parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts … doing their best to

Love Jesus and hold on to the vision of a better world.

Even now, O God, as we gather here at Covenant on the Corner, countless millions who lift up the name of your Son Jesus … and live and love in his name, laboring to bring about your will on earth … A world of justice and peace.

Bless us, we pray, that we might grow deeper into your love, that your love might grow deeper into us.

That we might be a church that really looks and sounds like Jesus.

That we might practice the power of his welcome.

We pray for the young couple in Louisiana denied a marriage license; we’re grateful they found someone to marry them.

We pray for the justice of the peace who turned them down, and for all who harbor ill-will and cannot see it.

We pray for people of good conscience and authentic faith who continue to raise up a good vision - a better world for all.

We pray for people looking for work …

We pray for those suffering ill-health …

We pray for the lonely and the forlorn …

We pray for churches across the land and around the world … soaring cathedrals and tin-roofed sheds … help us all to be more like Jesus …

And thank you, O God, for this day …

A day of joyful baptism,

For Maya and her family.

A day for all of us to remember who we really are …

Followers of Jesus the Christ:

Devoted to you,

Loving toward one another.

Faithful to the vision of a better world.

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, thy will be done, one earth …

October 11, 2009 Prayers of the People

2009-10-12T08:15:00.000-07:00

O God, our Father …

O Christ, our Brother …

O Spirit, our Mother …

All honor and glory to you, Triune God:

For the wonder of creation …

For Jesus Christ our LORD …

For the indwelling Holy Spirit …

We are grateful, O God, and this sacred moment, we raise our hearts to you in praise and adoration … for great is your name and greatly to be praised!

Give us this day our daily bread …

Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us …

Lead us through the tough times and save us from evil …

We pray today for Officer Kevin Ree … and all who serve with him … help them, O LORD, to persevere in their duty and may your gracious hand keep them safe in their work.

We pray today, O God, for all who work to keep us safe and sound:

Fire fighters and ambulance drivers, medics and life guards … city and state employees who fill the pot holes and keep clean water running … who check out our books at the public library … who manage a billion details every day to keep 300 million Americans working together for the common good.

O LORD our God, we pray for our President and those who advise him. We pray for his family and those who love him.

We pray for the members of Congress and those who sit upon the judgment bench.

We pray for attorneys and legislators, mayors and city councils …

There is much to challenge them, and much that needs to be done.

We pray for corporate executives and their boards of directors …

We pray for their employees …

We pray for the unions …

There is much to challenge them, and much that needs to be done.

We pray today for those who’ve lost their jobs and are looking for work …

We pray for those who work at minimum wage …

We pray for those who work without a safety net … without benefits and job security …

O LORD, there is much that challenges us, and much that needs to be done.

O LORD our God, be gracious to us this day …

Challenge us with some great cause …

A true and noble purpose …

Something larger than life … something that will take a life time and then some …

Yet remind us, O God, that where we live and where we work is where you have put us … that a job well done is always pleasing in your sight – that an honest day’s labor is part and parcel of your will for each of us …

That a word rightly spoken,

A kindly deed given,

A prayer offered …

Are the things that change the world.

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

October 4, 2009 - Prayers of the People

2009-10-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Communion Sunday

LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,

You are the LORD of this Table.

You break the bread and give it to us;

You bless the cup and share it with us.

You give us the Father’s love:

A vast and wondrous love you carried to Calvary’ cross … into the tomb and back again … all the way to hell, and then to heaven … to claim an immeasurable territory for your Father’s far-reaching love … a love that cannot be deterred … a love greater than anything in life or in death … a love that will not let us go!

Upon this Table, O Christ, names … names written on yellow cards … people we know and people we don’t – life in all of its wonder and with all of its hardship - thanksgiving and sorrow, birth and death, turmoil and pain, healing and hope, tears and laughter, memories and hurt, dreams and confusion, firm convictions and troubling questions … the stories of our lives and those we love … upon this Table, O God … and for them we have prayed, Jesus my LORD.

We pray, O Christ, for those who suffered loss in the earthquakes and tsunamis of the last week … we pray for the good forces of government and charitable organizations around the world - to join together, to materially rebuild what has been shattered, and materially restore what has been lost.

Every life lost, O Christ, we commend to you.

To you, O Christ, every broken heart.

Unto your care, every dream.

Into your hands, every tear.

We give thanks, dear Christ, that we know you.

That our lives are in your good hands.

That our faith counts for something.

That our efforts to live well are important.

It’s a miracle to know you.

You cam to us at some point in time to lift the veil.

You came to some of us when we are but children and we felt your love.

To some of us, a bit later – to some of us, much later.

You come to us in the sweet times, and you come to us in times of horror and failure, when all we want to do is hide from you.

You come to all of us, in some form or fashion …

To awaken our hearts.

To give us assurance and a fresh start.

To challenge our minds with lofty thoughts.

To give us your love that we might love the world.

To call us to lives of justice and peacemaking, as your Father in heaven would want it, that we might do your Father’s will on earth as it is in heaven.

We bless you, O Christ.

We honor you today with heart and mind and soul and strength.

We lift high your cross.

And we take up our cross, with fresh resolve and high gratitude.

Fill us, we pray, with your divine breath.

Help us leave behind what is flawed and foolish.

Receive our lives, such as they are, and return them to us, made anew!

That we might press on to your high calling,

With love as our signature, writ large in our lives!

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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …

Parenting????

2009-10-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Something I wrote recently to a young mother:

My wife and I are advocates of gentle, porous, patient, boundaries, while allowing the child to emerge at their own pace and in their own way ... and sometimes their emergence doesn't fit well with mom and dad ... I think it's pretty much up to mom and dad to adjust as the child grows ... experiments ... tries different things ... Even when its inconvenient, which it often is, parents need to be flexible. When I counsel those getting married and talk about children, I say, "Children are very expensive in every imaginable way. Be prepared to pay the price, and pay it gladly. If not, do them and the world a favor: don't have any. Because I'll have to counsel them when they're adults and listen to them talk about you." Ha!