Letting Go

led by Kari Keyl on July 23, 2009

First Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
I kneel in prayer to the Father. All beings in heaven and on earth receive their life from him. God is wonderful and glorious. I pray that his Spirit will make you become strong followers and that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love.

I pray that you and all of God's people will understand what is called wide or long or high or deep. I want you to know all about Christ's love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.

I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Amen.
(Contemporary English Version)

Prayer:
O God, we hunger for stability, to know what we can count on. Teach us to count on your love. Show us how to give up counting on ourselves, and how to root ourselves in you. Give us courage to speak up about our own experiences of your love and power, that we might teach one another. In your name we pray… amen.

Second Reading: The Wondrous Gift
How silently, how silently
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming;
but, in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him,
still the dear Christ enters in.
(verse 3, O Little Town of Bethlehelm)

Prayer:
Your wondrous gifts, O God, are beyond what words can express. Sometimes in the silence, in the stillness of a praying community, we can sense those gifts in new ways... O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin, and enter in. Be born in us today. In your name we pray… amen.

Third Reading: Christ Dwelling in Us… Now
With only believing in Jesus and not “the Christ,” we had no understanding of the indwelling Christ that we are. To believe in Jesus Christ is to make two distinct faith affirmations, one in the historical Jesus, and the other in the Christ of space and time, which we are a part of! Most of history argued about the historical Jesus instead of experiencing the Christ now.

Salvation is simply conscious experience of our union with God and the lifestyle that proceeds from that conscious union. But at any rate, it happens now—“in Christ”—as Paul says over 200 times. Paul never knew Jesus but he knew Christ and believed in Jesus as the revelation of the Eternal Christ Mystery. (Think about that!)

We are all sons and daughters of God and at the same time sons and daughters of earth. We’ve got to stop running from our “earthiness”; hating it, denying it, projecting it onto other, so called, unworthy people. For some wonderful reason, this mixture of heaven and earth that we are, and that all creation is, is what God loves and where God dwells. You cannot get better than that!
(from Richard Rohr's The Cosmic Christ)

Prayer:
O Christ beyond space and time, do you really dwell in me? Whisper to me of your mysteries. Teach us to love all of creation, all that is earthly, yet somehow heavenly as well. Set our feet upon the steady ground that is you. In your name we pray… amen.

getting lost (july 16, 2009)

First Reading: You comfort me (rock opera a la ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’), Rob Lacy’s version of Psalm 23 in The Word on the Street:

You’re my guide and my guard, my minder, my mentor.

What more do I need? What’s better at the centre?

You sit me down, put my best CD on,

And my soul remembers who I am again.

Chorus:

(backing) You’re with me; you comfort me (x2)

(lead) You hold my swaying heart—so soft, so strong.

(backing) You’re with me; you comfort me (x2)

(lead) You stop them tearing me apart—I fear no wrong.

You show me where to go, without telling me;

You set a value on my life, without selling me.

(backing and lead) You’re with me; you comfort me (x2)

You call me to the streets; you show me such good things,

Right things with no hidden strings—

Just your name on, and its game on.

Your great repute, like a distant flute it comforts me.

I crawl through the alley of the shadow of cancer;

I know you know the answer, and the battle won’t rattle me.

You’re around, and I’ve found there’s something about your empathy,

Your symphony of sympathy, that comforts me.

You lay out a table; you sit me down;

My rivals arrive from the greatest to the least,

But my cup’s kept full, and my head’s held high

As you boast about me, your least priest,

And make them toast me right through the feast.

Boy, does it comfort me!

I know that your good, your best, your love and passion

Will stalk me, steer me, stand alongside me,

Outlast every fad and fashion, through all eternity.

For I’m going to live with you,

See heaven’s great views from my own cosmic mews;

No lease to renew, no terms to review, not one else to view—

Just me and you, me and you, me and you,

Right through, to the end of time.

Prayer:

Ever-present God, life can be so hurried and full of the tasks we need to do. Lead us to that place in your heart where we find rest and renewal. Help us remember who we are again and who you are to us. In your name we pray… amen.

Second Reading: Mark 6:30-34

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Prayer:

Teacher Jesus, you took your followers away for some God-time, and you led them back into caring for your people. Teach us that rhythm. Help us to look out on your people with compassion like you did. Lead us into those valleys where we find your shepherdless children, and in doing so, find you. In your name we pray… amen.

Third Reading: Nourished and Refreshed By Wayne Muller

Once people feel nourished and refreshed, they cannot help but be kind; just so, the world aches for the generosity of a well-rested people. Source: Sabbath

Prayer:

Shepherding God, you are reaching out to nourish and refresh us even now. Breathe in us your peace. Teach us to be the generous and well-rested people our world is aching for. In your name we pray… amen.