Rottweilers, Love and God

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.