May 9, 2010 - Prayers of the People

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

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

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

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????

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

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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

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 …