A Prayer for the Election

A wonderful prayer by the Rev. Dr. Ken Carter, from the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship website:

Creator of us all:
you are the source of every blessing,
the judge of every nation
and the hope of earth and heaven:

We pray to you on the eve of this important and historic election.

We call to mind the best that is within us:
That we live under God,
that we are indivisible,
that liberty and justice extend to all.

We acknowledge the sin that runs through our history as a nation:
The displacement of native peoples, racial injustice, economic inequity, regional separation.

And yet we profess a deep and abiding gratitude
for the goodness of ordinary people who have made sacrifices,
who have sought opportunities,
who have journeyed to this land as immigrants
strengthening its promise in successive generations,
who have found freedom on these shores,
and defended this freedom at tremendous cost.

Be with us in the days that are near.
Remind us that your ways are not our ways,
that your power and might transcend
the plans of every nation,
that you are not mocked.

Let those who follow your Son Jesus Christ be a peaceable people
in the midst of division.

Send your Spirit of peace, justice and freedom upon us,
break down the walls of political partisanship,
and make us one.

Give us wisdom to walk in your ways,
courage to speak in your name,
and humility to trust in your providence. Amen.

Worry

Last night for our worship/study time during the session meeting, I invited folks to write down and share three things they worry about--small things, middle-sized things, and big things. It was a lively discussion, and after it (including when I shared my own worries, and my tendency to be a worrier), we read Matthew 6:25-34, about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.

This morning during my devotional time, I opened to Day 7 of the book I am using (40 Day Journey with Deitrich Bonhoeffer—a great book--Augsburg Books publisher). I was VERY surprised to find the same theme and scripture. Here are a couple of quotes from his writings from this morning:

“Worry is always directed toward tomorrow . . . It is our securing things for tomorrow which makes us so insecure today . . . Only those who put tomorrow completely into God’s hand and receive fully today what they need for their lives are really secure. Receiving daily liberates me from tomorrow.”

The scripture was Matthew 6:33-34, which we had read last night.

The prayer for today was: “Lord, I place my worries in your gracious hand and live this day trusting that you are with me and that what I have is more than I need.”

Do you think God is trying to tell me something?

Churches and Elections

I spent some time watching Rick Warren's interview with Barack Obama and John McCain, which took place this weekend. Observations that stand out in my mind: For Christians, our churches are a great forum to be talking about the candidates for President. We need to know more than the sound bytes from ads. We need to know more than the pot shots candidates take at one another during debates. I liked the set-up for this interview, even though it was probably a lot more about Rick Warren than about the candidates. I liked the fact that they were asked the same questions, that they had plenty of time to answer, that their answers were not edited. I don't know if they saw the questions first. But it was a more relaxing way to get to know both Obama and McCain. I feel much more comfortable about both right now. I hate sound bytes!!

All this said, I urge you to read what candidates have to say on their web sites and in any kind of forum where they have time for thoughtful answers. I'd say be suspicious of most of the news media--television seems to be more and more interested in the inflammatory headline than anything else. Find out for yourself. Let's talk about politics in our churches, and reflect on which positions and which candidates come closest to our core values as Christians. We want our country to be taking care of our brothers and sisters in need, protecting the weak, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the prisoner. We want to care for God's creation. We want to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We have that word from the Gospel. The "hows" may be different, but I think we are agreed on the basics. It's what we profess and do in church.

I'd invite Obama and McCain to Northside to have this discussion if I thought they would come, and I applaud them for taking advantage of this opportunity to talk at length about their beliefs and their character. If you missed the forum, you can find it by doing a search including "Obama McCain Warren" on youtube.com. Watch. Listen. Pray.

Midsummer

We are deep into summer now, and if the living isn't exactly easy, it is certainly quieter! Emails have slowed down to a trickle, and few of you are making your way into the church between Sundays. The heat and quiet often lull me into forgetting that Fall is on its way, and all the events and activities that crank into gear about the first of September. And so, I begin to think forward--August, September, October, officer elections, stewardship season, the startup of Logos, and before you know it, a new church year begins with Advent. If you stop by to see me and wonder why I don't know what day it is, I'm just living into the future.

Our future in the Presbyterian Church is "yeasty" right now. Lots of things have gone on and are continuing to stir. One of the most visible events in our denomination is the election of Bruce Reyes-Chow as the new Moderator of General Assembly. I hope you will take a look at him via video.



Stop in and see me sometime this summer. I'll be gone for a few weeks starting July 23, but I'll see you soon after.

Earth Day 2008

Earth Day was yesterday, and my mind has been busy thinking about our relationship with the earth, and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Our Book of Common Worship has a wonderful prayer in it, written by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:

Lord, may we love all your creation,
all the earth and every grain of sand in it.
May we love every leaf, every ray of your light.

May we love the animals;
You have given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Let us not trouble it;
let us not harass them,
let us not deprive them of their happiness,
let us not work against your intent.

For we acknowledge unto you that all is like an ocean,
all is flowing and blending,
and that to withhold any measure of love
from anything in your universe
is to withhold that same measure from you. Amen.

I must confess that I have some difficulty putting my heart into this prayer as it relates to mosquitoes, poison ivy, and viruses, but I also must confess that my understanding of all the ways God’s world works together is a mystery to me. I am challenged to remember always that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it; the world, and those who live in it.”