7.9.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena

Eternal God, creator of the heavens and the earth … we give thanks for your grace, mercy, and peace … you have reached into our minds and deep into our hearts, to give us Christ … 

You have reshaped our souls and rebirthed our spirits.

You have given us, O God, our salvation:

The salvation of our souls and our bodies … 

the salvation of our hopes and dreams … 

the salvation of our faith and trust … 

We are new creatures in Christ … and we are servants of your glory!

We give thanks for the earth and all of its beauty … the wonders and mysteries of life … the stars above, the endless expanse of time and space, the enduring qualities of faith, hope, and love … and for your patience, O God, as your Spirit strives with humanity, and humanity strives with itself, wondering if life is but an accident, or if life has an eternal purpose and plan. Speak tenderly to our hearts, O God, that we might find in your love the eternal grounding of who we are, and all that we want to be.

We give thanks, O God, for the rains and snow that have eased the drought throughout the western states … we give thanks for the growers and workers of the San Joaquin Valley … we mindful of the changes there with the rebirth of Lake Tulare … displacement, hardship, loss - may your love ease the necessary adjustments, and may the workers be respected and helped.

Bless all who produce the food of the world … farmers and workers, agents and packers … give us the presence of mind, dear God, to recognize in our daily bread the hands of thousands who’ve made it possible, the glory and goodness of the earth and its seasonal patterns, and your love, O God, an enduring love that creates the universe, our earth, our sun, and the spinning galaxies.

Bless, we pray, Westminster Presbyterian Church, that we might know your glory and the goodness of the Gospel, all the more, as we apply ourselves to your calling, to be faithful to Christ, to be loving of one another, to let our shine in this trembling world, that we might be a trustworthy example of your glory and grace.

We pray, O God, for our families and friends … where there is sorrow, may there be comfort … where there is uncertainty and distress, may there be guidance … where there is hurt and pain of soul or body, may there be healing … where there is misunderstanding and conflict, may there reconciliation and peace.

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. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen. 

Prayer for the Day

Prayer for the Day ...

O Thou who art the source of all ...
Whose word creates the substance and the storm,
The moment and the motion,
The span of life and all of love ...
Unto whom we all belong,
In life and in death,
Body and soul,
Here, there and everywhere ...

In times of distress, you speak tenderly to our wary hearts.
When all seems lost, you anchor us in your eternity.
When love blossoms, you laugh with us and feel the joy ... of hope and pleasure, desire and dreams ...

In life, you are a guiding light, and sometimes the luminous darkness of unknowing and wandering ...

In death, you are the final comfort, the beckoning hand, that welcomes and in some strange way, rewinds the clock ...

That which is lost is found.
That which is blind is given sight.

The bound and the broken are released.
The fearful and fatigued are taken in your hand.

When it's dark and cold, Christ is born.
When hateful powers seek his life, escape is made
He's baptized and tested.
Asks a woman for a drink.
Welcomes Mary as a disciple, much to the distress of her bothered sister and to the amazement of the men.

With him, O God, we walk.
We talk and we wonder ... and follow.
As best we can ... with halting steps and faltering faith.
But in faith, as it is, with steps as they are, we reach for the Kingdom of faith, hope and love.

And maybe, O God, we have some tables to overturn, and we'll do it ... fearful maybe, but we'll do it.

As best we can.

Amen!

It's Really Too Bad ...

It’s really too bad that evangelical christians have, in so many curious ways, abandoned science, fled science, as if it were some monstrous enemy, full of threats and dangers and demonic fires.

It’s a long and tangled story, I fear, and now these evangelicals find themselves stuck in a corner, from which there is no gracious exit, other than saying, “We were wrong.”

So, there in the corner, like little Jack Horner, they sit, stewing and steaming, creating new stories about evil scientists and how glorious the Bible is as a source of fact on all things that count, and a lot of things that don’t, and never will.

I was just reading about a Methodist encampment of the late 1800s on the Monterey Peninsula, that was named, and still is, Pacific Grove. Chautauqua-like in style, lots of famous speakers, including scientists, and no booze - it seems the good Methodist Folk of Pacific Grove wanted to know the latest, which is not a bad thing at all, and thought that sobriety was a good thing, which it mostly is, but not entirely so. And with clear minds, they welcomed those who could teach them about the world, with a keen appreciation of science.

Though the latest news from science fails to serve the ego of those who prefer to think of themselves as the free-ranging monarchs of God’s creation, a creation put together in 7 days, 7 24-hour days, to be precise, maybe 8000 years ago, at most, if one goes by the Bible and its begats. Or if 8000 is a bit too stodgy, then maybe 6000 will do. What’s a few thousand years here and there?

Well, it’s too bad that evangelicals lost the Chautauqua Spirit - the spirit of inquiry, the longing to know something about the Great God Almighty, who created the world through the eons, and is still creating it, and then created Hebrew Poets to write so beautifully about it, with metaphors of light and symmetry - this world is not some higgledy-piggledy mishmash wondering who it is, but something with purpose - “let there be light” ... and then let things reproduce after their own kind, which never seems to be much of a problem for anything that lives and breaths and hankers after a little hanky-panky, now and then, which seems to be pretty much the center of things for most things. And, then, as all things must, it’s “dust to dust and ashes to ashes,” which disturbs us, I guess, but there’s not much to be done about it ... unless cryogenics comes up with some fancy ideas, but I’m rather cool to the idea myself.

Anyway, the Hebrew Poets, some mighty smart folks, I think, if hanging around Pacific Grove in the late 1800s, would’ve signed up for the latest Chautauqua Lecture Series on science and all things that delve into the deeps of life, with lots of questions and lots of delight ... it’s energizing to live in a world so large, so expansive, so old, so beyond our grasp ... yet giving life to us all the time, giving us second and third chances, and entertaining us with beauty and fierceness that swirl around us like the leaves of fall, or a cloud of gnats on a hot summer day in a Northern Woods.

Billions and billions of years ... staggers the mind, it really does. A mind staggered now and then, by big numbers, or maybe with a glass of Monterey Wine now and then, is a mind God can work with ... a mind staggered has lots of vulnerability to it, it’s pliable, workable, malleable and laughs easily, which, I think, most evangelicals are loath to do. The world is far too serious for them, and they miss the point of “making light,” which has to with our eyes, and with our sensibilities. If we can’t, or won’t, make light of things, I doubt if we can make light at all, which is contrary to the point of God’s good work - to make light ... “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for my burden is light” - not only in terms of weight, but in terms of delight and hope and wonderment, which led those late 19th Century Methodists to create Pacific Grove in the first place and learn a few more things about God’s great and very good creation.

I don’t know what will become of today’s corner-sitting evangelicals ... but who wants to sit in a corner all the time? Maybe one of these days, enough of them will get sick of their windowless room, turn around and see what a large and wonderful world they’re missing, and then, en masse, step out it with peace toward one another, abandoning the corner into which they put themselves a long time ago, eager to set out upon the road ahead, which never ends as it pushes on into the infinite love of God.

It’s good to live in a world so big, so old, so wise. On every turn of the road, when I’m laughing and when I’m not, I see what Isaiah saw in his smoky dream, the “hem of God’s garment,” swishing away, just over there, out of the corner of my eye, filling the temple of my brain and heart with wonder and joy and a very strange surpassing peace suffused with the aroma of love.

Billions and billions of years ...

"Views" - are all "views" created equal?

Someone on another's Facebook thread mentioned "views" - that it's all just "views" we have ... but is that true?

Here's what I wrote:

"Views" are one thing ... heck, some folks view the moon as made of cheese, and the world flat, and the earth no more than 6000 years old ... what's one view vs. another? How about Hitler's view of things and that of Churchill? Or Stalin and Truman? Or how about Lincoln and Davis. Mandela and Botha? Governor Wallace and ML King, Jr. They all had their views, but history makes it clear that some views are closer to the moral character of the universe.

If we're gonna yak about "my views" vs. "your views," we need to talk about the moral character of the universe - creation isn't neutral. Though Cain kills Abel outta jealousy, and God graciously protects Cain afterward, God sees to it that Seth comes along, to sustain the moral universe that Cain killed. The powers-that-be, the wealthy and the religious, pretty much always join forces with Cain to kill Abel. But there's always Seth; God sustains the moral bent of creation.

There are views, and then there are views - not all are created equal.

So, what's your take on the moral bent of creation?

I think the moral bent of creation favors the poor, not the rich. Favors helping folks, not putting 'em down. Is kind and generous toward the needy, not judgmental and scornful. Favors giving things away, not piling 'em up in off-shore bank accounts. Sides with peace-makers, no war-mongers. Has no borders instead of steel walls and armed guards. Welcomes all, and turns none away.

How I see the universe is how I read and receive the news.

What Is Creationism?

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!

May 22, 2011 - Pastor's Prayer

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 …