Friday prayer based on Psalms

As we continue our conversation with the Psalms...these Hebrew Hymns and Prayer-drenched poems that simultaneously connect us to our ancestors and to today; a prayer from these holy words.

For ideas and insights we hold clear and point us toward You,
For questions that linger persistently and doggedly refuse easy answers.
For mystery we sit silently...comfortably beside.
For hope that stirs
For frustrations when the words won't conform to what we thing.
For raw emotions
For release and relief.

For this day...this holy, amazing day of life.
For this breath...and the one of this.

For an understanding and orientation toward God
That suddenly, like a drop of a roller coaster called life which comes
In phone calls
Doctor's offices
A blink of an eye...
And we feel the world spinning and stirring in dizzying disorientation.
For the questions of why?
How long?
What in the world?
And cathartic tears and a sudden smile,
And praise that drips from our heads to our pinkie toe.

Thank you, O God.

Grace and peace ~

Vacation

Be still and know that I am God.

Be...not doing or accomplishing.

Still...not moving or constant motion.

And...the promise of more.

Know...not only in my head, but also my heart.

That...which points to something more.

I...which is often lifted up as the center...but

am God...an acknowledgment of who is really the ground and source of my being.


As our family embarks on vacation, let these words go before, beside, and in the space in-between our lives speaking truth that is more than good advice...but a way to find true life.

Amen.

Study

Words create worlds...said Abraham Heschel
Words that I speak.
Words that I hear.
Words that I want to hold at a distant.
Words that challenge.
Words that confront and even offend.
Some words create worlds that I want to inhabit.
Some words create worlds that I would rather not visit.

Your word, O God, creates a world around us.
Your word, O God, came in the flesh of Jesus Christ helping us to see the world and life in new ways.
Your word, O God, still surfs, hovers, and hangs around the chaos of our ordinary lives.
Your word, O God, can be covered by political, military, give me power now speechifying we hear all around us.
Your word, O God, can be covered by my own ego wanting to pontificate.

Speak Your word afresh and anew, O God.
Clear out the spiritual earwax built up...the cloudiness of constantly being on the go...the voices that clamor for my allegiance in the form of my wallet, my vote, my bank statement, house, car, or what I have down.
Create a new world...Your world...Your realm where peace cannot be found through violence;
Your realm where winning and losing are not the only realities.
Your realm where love is at the center and not scoffed at with snide, sarcastic comments.
Maybe it is less about waiting for Your realm to come and more about waking up to Your realm right here and now.

That kind of word would create a brand-new world.

Amen.

Saturday

The excitement hovers and hangs in the air.
The bags are packed with clothing for the trip.
The anticipation of the unknown as we set out for places we've never been.
The lure of the mountains.
The chance to seen the majesty of the Grand Canyon.
The excitements mixes with a tinge of nervousness for that which we cannot control.
Will the flight be on time?
Will our luggage land with us?
Will the strange bed be comfortable?
Will the food be good?

For all we talk about life as a journey,
most days we travel the same roads,
in familiar ruts of daily life:
Grocery store, dishes, meals, work to do, places to go.
Most days don't seem like an adventure.
Yet, lurking in the corner of every day, You are there.
We might smile at the truth that, "The other name for God is, 'Surprise'."
But most days, blinded by the mundane and ordinary,
I am not sure I see as clear as I like.

So it helps to get away.
It helps to go to a new place, an unfamiliar place, that place where Jacob said,
"Sure God is in this PLACE and I didn't know it."
Because maybe the best souvenir I can bring back with me is not some trinket or token bought
But a sense that if God is there in the mountains of Colorado
If God is there is the vast canyon of Arizona
Then maybe God can be here in this everyday moment called today.
And if I can live that truth...
It truly would be the best news I have ever heard.

Amen.

Midweek Prayer

In the morning when I rise...

In the morning when I rise...

In the morning when I rise...

Give me Jesus.

This day that You have made, O God.
This day with all its beauty and brokenness.
This day with all its items clamoring for accomplishment.
This day with all its calling to achieve and prove.
This day with a sunrise and crashing tide that I had nothing to do with...
This day with this very breath right here.
This day with a warm cup of coffee that awakens me.
This day with a bird chirping and tree frog crying outside my window.
This day for a walk around the block while clouds sail past rushing to points unknown.

Four percent....scientists say that we know four percent of this world.
In school I was taught that four percent was the be all and end all.
Memorize and recite that four percent.
Study that four percent.
But what about the other ninety-six?
What about depths of oceans where sea creatures live in the dark, navigating the mud and muck?
What about the height of the sky where planes and rockets haven't ever touched?
What about that house down the block where I don't even know who is insight?
What about that part of my soul that I haven't ever explored?

Four percent...that might be too generous!
So this morning when I rise
Remind me that life is not a puzzle to be solved, but a mystery to be experienced.
Remind me that the three best words might be, "I don't know!"
Remind me that it is okay to be an explorer rather than an expert.
And remind me that the One who walked this world, loved this world, embraced and was embraced by this world...Jesus the Christ...promises to go before, beside, behind and beneath me all day.

Yes, when I rise, give me an open heart
An active imagination
And a attitude attuned to You, O God.
This is the day You have made, let every moment my life rejoice and join in You.

Amen.

Saturday

You discern my thoughts from far away, O God.  You search out my path and my lying down.  And are acquainted with all my ways.  Psalm 139:2-3

Wait...all my ways??
Does that really mean those ways of grumbling and grousing?
Does that really mean those moments I get frustrated and fumed?
Does that really mean that moment...when I said that thing...which I am totally NOT gonna post on-line for everyone else to know too?

But does that also mean that moment I made my children laugh?
That moment of healing, whole touch of the one I love and promised to spend my life with?
That moment when I could set aside the world's voice of success and listen for You, O God?

Does that mean that messy middle moment? When I didn't know which way was up?
Does that mean that moment of doing dishes and cleaning house?
That moment I got lost in thought while mowing the lawn?

Does it mean my way of trying too hard?
Does it mean my moments when I realize You love me not in-spite of all my ways, but because of them?

That almost seems too good to be true.
Because every other voice clamoring chaotically around me says:
"You need to consume!"
"Your self-worth is tied to your net-worth!"
"What did you do today?"

Help me hear more than the ways of the world...
Help me hear more than the ways of my own head...
Help me hear Your ways...Your ways of peace, hope, joy, love.
Your ways of grace that lead us home.
Your ways that are not my ways.
Set me on Your way, O God!  This day and throughout the days to come.

Amen.

Midweek Prayer

You have searched me and known me, O God.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up ~ Psalm 139:1-2

There is comfort in Your presence, O God.
A mysterious comfort;
An indescribable comfort;
A sense that I am known more fully than I know myself.

There is challenge in Your presence, O God.
A sense that I don't know as much as I think I do.
A sense that I can't think and solve my way out of everything.
A sense that grace is not mine to embrace, but to be embraced by.

There is care in Your presence, O God.
A reassurance that today need not only be measured by the items crossed off my to-do list;
A reassurance that this breath...right now...is an ineffable gift;
A reassurance that "Beloved" is not a title bestowed, but a truth to be felt.

There is calling in Your presence, O God.
That out of seven billion people, no one is quite the same exotic cocktail as I.
That out of seven billion people, I might share my heart and hands in beautiful, life giving ways.
That out of seven billion people, I might add my voice to the chorus of Your still speaking voice.

I pray that I would be in-tune and attune to You.
Not just in this moment, but every moment.
Not just when convenient, but continuously.
Not just in this sweet hour of prayer, but throughout this day.

When I sit down and when I rise,
When I speak and when I keep silence,
When I feel Your calm and when my shoulders tense up and jaw protrudes,
Help me stay open to You.
Surround me and sustain me this day.
Let my prayer rise up like incense and every word as an offering to You, source of all that is and will be this day.

Amen.

Caught Speeding

Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry?  Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?  But you say, ‘I can’t help it.  I’m addicted to alien gods. I can’t quit.  Jeremiah 2:25 (The Message)

It is so easy to get swept up in the modern day pace of life.  It is frenzied, wake up in the morning already feeling being, constantly on the go, make sure every available space in our calendar is filled... but ever wonder, "Why"?  Why have we accepted this as the meta-narrative of our life?   We live in the midst of a paradox involving choice.  There are so many options out there.  Look at the cereal aisle in your store, how many do we really need?  And we end up often with analysis paralysis.  We can't decide, so we need up filling our lives, every second, until we fall exhausted into bed.  Only to get up and repeat the cycle the next day.  

Jeremiah was a prophet during the exile, when the People of God in Israel were conquered and forced to live in a foreign land.  Their temple was destroyed, smoldering in ash.  Jeremiah asks a question that echoes over the centuries, "Why?"  Why live this way.  The people say, "I can't help it.  I am addicted to alien gods."  That might just be one verse of Scripture that little comment by me.  We are addicted to alien gods of consumerism, spending our way to happiness, and believing that our self-worth comes from how busy we are.  I worship at those altars, sometimes more than I want to admit out-loud.

A few weeks ago in a sermon I asked the question, "What is the speed limit of your life?"  The follow up question could be, "Does someone need to give you a speeding ticket?"  It was one of those questions that came out of my mouth unscripted, but it is one that I cannot outrun, no matter how much I try to fill my day.  We all need to slow down, learn that the speed of life is not the speed of sound or light, but much slower.  

What is the speed limit in your life right now?  Are you moving too fast, is life a blur?  Or are things moving slow?  When in the valley moments of life, it can feel like time moves at a snails pace.  Moments of pain seem to fill and bog down the second hand of our watch.  Then, there are moments of joy when you look up and wonder, "Where did the time go?"  And our minds know that time cannot move slower or faster, it is our perception and interpretation of it.

How is time moving for you right now?  Or to put that question one other way, How is it with your soul?  Maybe you prefer one of the other questions above to that one, which feels vulnerable.  I hope one of the questions in this blog will sit with you and stay around your life.  I don't know that I will every answer the above questions once and for all, but they are good questions for me to ask and let God get a word in edgewise.  

May you ponder prayerfully your speed limit and may there be more than a trace of God's grace in the responses.  Then, may that grace guide you in the living out of these days.

Blessings ~ 

Help

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

    where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.  Psalm 121

Surely God is my help;

    the Lord is the one who sustains me  Psalm 54

If "Sorry" is a word that we find difficult to wrap our minds, hearts and lives around...."Help" is not much easier.  We live in a world where the narrative is that you need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, where accepting help is seen as some sort of moral or person failure, and where asking for help makes our stomachs feel all queasy, like we rode the Tilt-a-whirl at the fair too many times.

We don't like to depend on anyone else.  Because, to be honest, we don't like to be beholden to anyone else.  We  don't want that hanging over our heads.  So, we do everything possible to make it seem like we are self made, which is physically impossible.  We have parents who are the ones who made it possible for us to exist and take in air.  With our first breath we are already beholden.  Not to mention the years they provided a roof over our heads and food on the table.  I was educated in the public school...there at least 50 teachers who I am beholden to.  And, of course, working in a church means that I am fully dependent upon the generosity of donations to pay my salary.  Lots of people have and lots of people do help me.  Truth be told, you could say the exact some time.  CEOs need the help of workers.  Teachers need the help of students.  Paul McCarty was right, "We get by with a little (or actually A LOT) of help from my friends (and others too numerous to list...or at least to sing about)"

Scripture is full of passages about the help God offers us.  Sometimes this is tangible help...other times it is just a strength swirling within.  Often times...because we don't like be beholden to anyone....we think think of our relationship with God in terms of a transaction.  That we 'ought to' give money to get God's help or we need to pray the right prayer to get God's help...that somehow we earn God's help.  The image here is of a vending machine, we want something so we have to smooth out and will the dollar into the machine to get what we want.  Friends, God is NOT a vending machine.  Even though my salary does need gifts, God does not.  God desires a relationship, not manipulation or calculation on our part.  God desires our whole lives, not just our wounds.  God desires our honesty, not our speeches.  

That is why "Help" can be such an honest prayer.  But too often that is ALL our prayers are.  Help this person, help us, help this situation.  That is why I found Brian McLaren's list so powerful.  Even though "Help" might be #1 on our most requested prayer list...it did not appear in Brian's until #5.  There is something about starting with acknowledging God's presence in my life first.  There is something about giving thanks.  There is something about noticing the wonder and awe around me.  There is something about noticing my own culpability in brokenness (see "Sorry" post) that then puts into proper perspective my need for help.

I invite you this week with your prayers to do simply that.  Start by noticing God.  How do you notice God?  Then give thanks for the blessings.  Then go deeper with those blessings, be in awe.  Then notice places and times and words that have hurt and hurt others.  Then, name honesty the help we need.

Brian McLaren writes that often our cries for help involve changing someone else or the situation, without acknowledging our own brokenness.  We cry for help when we are late and stuck in traffic, rather than asking for help to be more aware of time/not try to cram so much into our lives.  We cry for help to change the annoying co-worker, rather than asking for help to be more understanding.  As you ponder prayerfully help this week...look over how you are asking for help and what you are asking for help with.  

As you do...may the traces of God's grace move in your life in ways that give us strength to ask for and accept a help that makes our lives whole.

Blessings ~

Finding our Inner-Santa

Click here to read Isaiah 22

Up on the rooftop, we did pause,
Hoping that God would hear our cause.
But what happens when things don't work out,
Do we find ourselves wanting to shout?

So, in the last post, I encouraged you to find sometime today to get to the watchtower, to change your perspective, or as Isaiah 22 puts it, "go to the rooftop".  I think sometimes religion can become too formulaic.  If I say, "Go to the watchtower," the expectation might be that certainly God is going to meet you there, maybe even be waiting for you.  I think one reason why we give up on prayer, and some have given up on church, so quickly is because we have some lofty ideals (pun intended) about what the church, God, and religion should (or maybe ought?) to do for us.  And by the way, we are a bit busy, so if there is a drive-thru window in the watchtower/rooftop that would be great!

Twenty-two chapters into Isaiah and he is still droning on and on about the destruction of this and that.  Look, we get it.  We live in the age of twitter and condensed news.  Can't Isaiah just move on?  Much more of this and we will think maybe Isaiah should be tested for signs of depression.  But maybe the point is that as people today we move on too quickly.  Have we forgotten the pain of Sandy Hook?  Have we forgotten those in countries like Haiti or Japan ravaged by tsunamis?

I don't think the point is to put on a sackcloth and take off our sandals, like Isaiah did a few chapters earlier. But I also don't think we should always "try to look on the bright side" or think we need to sing like orphan Annie, "The sun will come out to tomorrow."  Life is messier than that.  Part what it means when we go to the watchtower or rooftop is we take our life with us.

When I talk about the watchtower/rooftop, I think often the first image that comes to my mind is Jesus' transfiguration.  In that scene, Jesus glows a dazzling white in front of Peter, James, and John (the first three disciples he called to follow him).  And because those images are intermingled in my mind, I start to think that if I find time today or tomorrow to get to the watchtower or rooftop, I should have a mountain top experience.  It is part of the psychology around a consumer society.  I made the time, I need to be rewarded.

I think life and faith are more complicated than that.  Sometimes I sit in the sanctuary alone and feel God's presence.  Other times, I just feel cold.  Some religious folks would say that the blame is fully on me in those God-is-distant moments, that I am doing something wrong.  And I think there can be a measure of truth in that.  Maybe in that moment I have a divided heart or I am just going through the motions.  But I also don't think faith is that black and white.  I have had experiences of prayer where I was fully open and honest and still did not sense God the way I had in other moments.

For me, I could just throw in the towel or wonder, "Why bother?"  But Isaiah's words invite me to re-consider.  In 22, he speaks honestly that just because we get to the rooftop does not mean everything will turn out peachy.  But, maybe, we can keep trying to carve the space in our lives for those moments of getting to the watchtower and rooftop, I trust the glimpse of God's grace will be heard honestly and authentically in my life.  And those moments, perhaps fleeting, will be enough.

Blessings and peace!

Forgotten

Click here to read Isaiah 17

Have you ever forgotten something?  No, that is not a rhetorical question.  While I have never pulled away from a gas pump with the nozzle still attached to my car, there are plenty of times and places I have forgotten to do, say, or complete something I promised someone I would do.  So, when Isaiah in verse 10 says, "You have forgotten God...Your rock," those words echo across the centuries and I slouch down in my chair.

Honestly, I may not be from Damascus, but there are moments I forget God.  I get wrapped up in my own agenda and I think that God has to keep up with me.  I am reminded of what the Reformer Martin Luther said, "I am so busy now...that if I did not spend three hours in prayer I would never get through the day."

Now, I realize most of us are not going to spend three hours in prayer...an hour would be a HUGE stretch. So how about three minutes?  If you start with three minutes now and add one minute each day, by the end of February you'd be around thirty minutes.  What if I promise to do that along with you?

I know thirty minutes seems like a long time.  So, maybe it does not need to happen overnight or all in what sitting.  Maybe ten minutes in the car without the radio.  Maybe ten minutes could be with your family around the dinner table sharing your highs and lows.  Maybe five at lunch time.  Maybe five minutes on a walk outside... once it gets out of the single digits, mind you!

Give this some thought.  I want to be careful not to make discipleship out to be something WE do.  If you read the sermon post from earlier today, you'll remember that for me discipleship is being radically open to God's serendipitous spirit...in ways that defy logical thought.  My suggestion above could turn into an item on our to do list.  Trying to balance praying when we feel led or feel like we need to listen to God.  Again, listening to Luther's quote, I think the busier we are, the more centering ourselves in prayer can be helpful.

I pray that doing this together might help us to notice the traces of God's grace in our lives...even in the midst of a cold winter day.

Blessings and peace!

The Lord's Prayer

Over the next couple of posts about prayer, I want to look at the Lord's Prayer.  Many have already commented about, preached about, written books about, and every Sunday in almost every Christian Church this prayer is part of the worship service, so I am trudging into well-known territory.  In some ways stepping into such conversation is difficult.  Do I really have anything fresh to add to the dialogue?  Or I am heaping more words upon a prayer that is relatively short and straight-forward?  

My prayer is in these posts you might find something that feels like a breath of fresh air.  Maybe at the bare minimum, these posts might cause you to ponder the Lord's Prayer as you said it Sunday after Sunday to think about the words falling from your lips rather than reciting on autopilot.  I promise to join you in that and also be open as the church I serve this Sunday says this prayer in our worship service.

The Lord's Prayer is found in two of the four Gospels:

Matthew 6:9-15

Luke 11:1-4

Neither Mark nor John include this prayer.  There are some similarities and differences between Matthew and Luke's versions.  Luke is very clear that the disciples prompt the prayer by requesting Jesus to 'teach them to pray.'  This comes as Jesus himself was in the midst of prayer.  You can almost picture the disciples hovering around, trying to eavesdrop as Jesus whispered words to God, and learn by osmosis.  I take heart that the disciples, Jesus' closest friends had to ask for wisdom about how to pray.  Maybe I can learn from that.  Prayer may not come as naturally as everyone likes to assume it should.  It can be difficult, even for those who were willing to give up their lives to follow Jesus.  Why in the world would we assume that we should know how to pray?  Maybe the disciples request could become ours and we might say, "Lord, teach me to pray!"

Matthew's version also is a teachable moment for Jesus.  Jesus clearly says, when you pray to God, pray like this... In Chapter 6, Jesus had just been to the temple and seen the way people were praying.  I have to admit it is always tempting to glance out of the corner of my eye when praying in public.  Is my wife's head bowed?  What about the person in front of me?  Once your eyes are open, you look at the person praying.  Are her eyes open or closed?  Is she reading from a printed prayer?  

So, let's start by affirming two things: 1).  We all need help with prayer and 2). We are curious about how other's pray too.

Both Matthew and Luke start off the Lord's Prayer with the same two words, "Our Father".  Perhaps you have already heard before that the word here in the original language is "Abba" and is really more appropriately translated, "Daddy", not that I think people are going to start saying, "Our Daddy".  Maybe one day.  Daddy is the more informal and initiate word for a relationship.  My kids never say, "Father, I would like some ice cream."  It is always, "Daaaaaaadddddy...could we please have ice cream," with each word, especially the first, coated in all the love they have.  Daddy is about a close connection.  

To be sure, not everyone reading this blog has had a great relationship with their biological father.  Maybe several reading this have had just God-awful relationships with males in their lives.  Assigning a gender to God will do that.  When you use intimate words, you awake intimate memories from our experiences.    

To say God was close and in a loving relationship with us, Jesus is drawing on the second creation narrative, Genesis 2, we God kneels in the dirt and crafts the first human out of the dust.  That is the kind of Creator Jesus points to in saying, "Our Father."

I know there is still tension around how we refer to God.  And so, I want you to think about that image.  Would it be better for you to say, "Our Father-Mother" so you can get beyond gender?  Would it be better for you to say, "Our God" to take gender out of it?  Would it be better for you if we took tradition another way?  For me, words matter and make a difference.  And it is good for me to ponder right now how is my relationship with God?  Do I feel the love of a parent intimate and close when I start the Lord's Prayer?  Or are the words tripping me up?

May the traces of God's grace be found in your life today as we open ourselves to the One whose love cares for us and sustains us.

Blessings.