Benediction: Webs of Relationship & Community (based on Hebrews 10:24)

May we know and sense God in every human interaction. May God's ways become our ways and God's work become our work.

May our webs of relationship and community be places where the goodness, grace, hope, and peace of God can be both sought and found. 

Responsive Call To Worship: "We" by God (based on Matthew 18:20)

Reader: Drawn by God’s presence …
All: … we gather together

Reader: Opened by God’s love …
All: … we share together

Reader: Inspired by God’s spirit …
All: … we raise our voices together

Reader: Empowered by God’s grace …
All: … we give thanks together

Reflection and Renewal: Isolation (based on Luke 9:24)

God,

You've created us for community and connection.  Yet we sometimes resist your call to change our hearts and allow a deepening of relationship.

We sometimes nurse our wounded hearts and withhold forgiveness that could transform relationships. Fear for our own security sometimes leads us to close our hearts to those who are in need.

When we keep getting it wrong, we need your grace and forgiveness. Thank you that your mercy is bottomless and limitless. Help us to mirror how you give and receive love; sacrificially.

Amen

Beginning Real Life Again When Advent Ends - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

Lest we think a divine calling means venturing to faraway, exotic lands and living among far more interesting people, or at least finding better jobs with loftier titles, the story says it might mean simply going home. 

Joseph and Mary do go back to Galilee, you know, to their own town of Nazareth, the scripture is clear to say, in case we might wonder where one goes to be duly appreciated and fully of service after being chosen of God for divine purposes. 

Lest we think a divine calling means venturing to faraway, exotic lands and living among far more interesting people, or at least finding better jobs with loftier titles, the story says it might mean simply going home. Go back to where you started, back to the old stories and whispers, back to your mundane and sometimes even boring life. Change might never show up in a particular place or position; change might only show up in you.

At the temple the family makes a sacrifice of thanksgiving for this, their firstborn son. Simeon is there, as is Anna, both of whom have the clarity of sight that can come to those who journey by staying at home, never losing faith in God’s plans. They see the child, sweet little boy of God, and they see beyond the child to the wisdom journey God intends for us all. 

We too are given sight beyond sight, comprehension beyond our understanding. Don’t you see how close it is, how palpable the peace we long for? See how the holy already threads through our mundane? The “same old, same old” is ever new, ever becoming, because we are. Everything that really matters is coming to an end. Everything that really matters is now beginning. Where will we see it? In us.

The full article is available here

Advent's Subversive Peace vs Empire's Violent Conquest - Jeff Wiersma

Much like Pax Romana required brutal conquest, so does our current imperial force; Consumerism.

At the time of Jesus' birth, the Roman Empire ruled most of the Mediterranean Region.  Their wars of conquest had been won and there was an era of general stability.  This absence of conflict came to be known as Pax Romana. 

But there is a stark contrast between how empires achieve "peace" and how Advent says peace will come.  Whereas Rome achieved peace as a result of brutal conquest and domineering power, the Kingdom of God promises peace through nonviolent love.

Before Jesus was born, his mother Mary sang about this contrast.  In the ways of kingdoms and empires, the rich and powerful had their way - at the expense of everyone else.  But Mary said that the Kingdom of God would both liberate the oppressed and free the oppressor from the dehumanizing cruelty necessary to achieve and maintain their position. 

In doing so, she echoed centuries of Jewish prophecy about God's Kingdom.  Similarly, the angels announcing Jesus' birth declared, "Peace on earth and good will to ALL."  Jesus' cousin John the Baptist preached that this Kingdom of God was at hand. 

Jesus' teachings furthered revealed this entirely different theological and political worldview.  He said that those who fancy themselves powerful and holy will be corrected while those who are trampled by the self-exalting will be blessed.

This message of nonviolent love delegitimizes the power structures of empire.  Accordingly, it was viewed as a threat.  Herod massacred a generation of Jewish boys in the effort to stop it.  The teachers of the law, who collaborated with the occupying Romans in order to maintain their elite level in Jewish society, begged for the empire to crucify Jesus because his message was so subversive.  Ultimately, he was executed on the empire's tool of capital punishment, the cross. 

Fast forward 2,000 years and we see that, though the context and parties involved differ, the same struggle persists. Much like Pax Romana required brutal conquest, so does our current imperial force; Consumerism. 

This imperial power has gained it's preeminent status through conquest, utilizing both hard and soft power.  Consumerism's victory and ongoing dominance requires the brutal conquest of ecosystems, nature, indigenous ways of life, spiritual mysticism, the inborn, hard-wiring of human beings to cooperate and bond in community, our sense of place and integral belonging to the world around us - the list could go on endlessly.  

In contrast, the Kingdom of God teaches that all things will be renewed and restored.  It says that it is better to give than to receive.  It teaches that it is more important to help the weak and lowly than to trample whomever gets in your way while looking out for #1. 

So this year, let's try to cut through the glossy layers of sentimentality and materialism that have been caked on top of the radical, subversive message of Advent's Peace.  Let's try to read it with fresh eyes and listen to it with fresh ears.  What might the implications be of such a revolutionary message?

Reflection and Renewal: When We're More Like Herod And Less Like The Magi (based on Matthew 2:7-8)

God,

We like to think that we would have been among those who saw the coming of the Christ Child, dropped all that they were doing and traveled to worship the coming of God's love into this world.

And yet, we must recognize all the times we are more like Herod;

• whenever we, in our actions or in our inaction, find our own need for control
  more compelling than the needs of others for health and safety
• whenever we cling to the security of our privilege, rather than standing up
  for the rights of the oppressed 
• whenever we are complicit in the harming of your creation and its inhabitants
  for the sake of profit, or power
• or because we fear to know, and to change, the injustices of this world.

God, though we carry the spark of the divine within us, our souls also contain Herod-like darkness. We pray that you will fill us with your light. We confess our wrong-doing against those created in your image, just as the Christ Child was.

Give us wisdom; with ears to hear where the songs of peace on earth and goodwill to men are being sung in your world, and eyes to see where love is being born.

Amen

All I Want for Christmas Is Uncertainty - Cindy Brandt in Sojourner's

I want to be scratching over the picture of God we've carved out, because there is something buried deeper to be uncovered, to be sculpted, shaped, and revealed.

We are drawn to the unknown because it tickles the innate sense of curiosity within us to discover and explore. Mystery invites participation, not for the sake of removing what is unknown, but to ignite a passion for learning beyond what is certain and be changed through the process.

Yet it seems like modern Christianity has been reduced to a serious of propositions about which we claim to be certain.  I am sorry, but I simply cannot muster up anymore enthusiasm for such a formulaic faith.

I am longing for the gift of uncertainty, a type of profound mystery that welcomes questions, a faith that requires a leap of faith to sustain. I don’t want to be told the answers to life’s pain. I want to live through the darkness and grope around for grace.

In the fast-food version of Christianity, God is packaged in accessible three-step programs, delivered in different ways: skits, sermons, Bible studies, movies, songs, and dance, but the goal is always to serve up the same, bland, sanitized spiritual food.

If I know exactly how the characters of a story are going to end up (repented, reconciled, redeemed), then I cannot feel invested in the journey. These are pre-programmed characters — propaganda puppets. I don’t trust they speak for the God of this crazy big universe.

I long to see through a glass darkly, to see just an outline of The Divine in a fog, because I fear that all of our crisp and clean images of God are mere illusions. When God is definitively contained in creeds and doctrines, we have concluded the search. Then what?

I don’t mind coming together week after week, taking the same old bread and wine, breathing the same, repetitive prayers. But with every rote movement, I want to be scratching over the picture of God we've carved out, because there is something buried deeper to be uncovered, to be sculpted, shaped, and revealed.

I want to be led by the God of Mystery and not by the Idol of Certainty.

The full article is available here

Mary's Song - Jeff Wright in Sojo

Mary sings about politics and economics, the dangers of unchecked power and the foolishness of false pride, and what it means for persons and nations to eschew the common good.

Mary's song, The Magnficat, is recorded in the Gospel According to Luke. In it, Mary sings about politics and economics, the dangers of unchecked power and the foolishness of false pride, and what it means for persons and nations to eschew the common good.

Mary sings of the outstretched arm of a Holy God who is effecting a great reversal in the world: the proud are scattered, the mighty brought low, the lowly raised up, the rich sent away empty and the hungry filled.

Mary sings the world forward, toward a global community of justice and compassion. There is no threat here, no self-righteousness, no gloating in her song. There is merely statement.

Life was created to work a certain way: with justice, in humility, looking to the needs of others. In our arrogance and love of power and things, we try to work it another way.

Hate kills life. Love stirs life. Holding grudges imprisons life. Forgiveness releases it. Criticism cripples life. Encouragement nurtures it. False pride cheapens life. Humility deepens it.  Hoarding divides life. Sharing multiplies life.

When all is said and done, this is the way that will prevail — the way of love, forgiveness, encouragement, humility and sharing.

After Jesus is born, Mary will nurse and nurture her little boy. And when the moments are right, this is the song she will teach her son, the song she sang to him while he was yet in her womb.

The full article is available here

Jesus' Birth: Shepherds Were There, Religious And Imperial Elites Weren't - Jeff Wiersma

In 1st Century Jewish culture, shepherds were considered to be among the lowest people in their society. They were made to feel like religious outcasts because they couldn't observe the purity rituals (most of which were invented by the teachers of the law) while working in the fields.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, the religious scholars and teachers were people who had devoted themselves to strictly observing Jewish law. (Not only that, they turned the the 613 requirements of the Law into more than 5,000 religious requirements which held the anyone else attempting to worship God in practical bondage).

They held the ultimate position of power in the temple, which was the center of the entire Jewish faith, thanks to their collaboration with occupying Romans.  Yet neither these elite members of the religious establishment nor the occupying Romans who propped them up were the ones who were visited by the angels that announced Christ’s birth.

Instead, the angels appear to a bunch of shepherds. In 1st century Jewish culture, shepherds were considered to be among the lowest people in their society.  In a recent sermon, a friend of mine aptly compared them to today's migrant farm workers.

In addition, they were made to feel like religious outcasts because they couldn't observe the purity rituals (most of which were invented by the teachers of the law) while working in the fields.  Despite living under the label of "unclean under the religious law," they were the ones chosen to come and worship.

As a contrast, it's interesting that those who considered themselves wise and upright in following the religious law weren't the ones to worship the newborn Messiah.  These were people who knew all of the Jewish texts that told of his coming by heart.  And still, they missed out on where the Kingdom of God was literally being born.  Is our religious establishment (ourselves included) much different today?

The divine invitation to the shepherds to be a part the story of Christ’s birth is yet another example of how the Kingdom of God subverts our hierarchies, unjust societal constructs, and class stratifications.  It is a reimagined world where those who are neglected by those in control are included and welcomed, where the first are last, and where the poor, the sick, and the foreigner are cared for.

How scandalous!

It is a message that can be both comforting and troubling. In areas where we feel like we are among those who are excluded (or where we advocate for those who are excluded), it can be comforting to remember that the story of Jesus’ birth is an object lesson in the subversive grace of the Kingdom of God.

In areas of our life where we feel quite proud of our status, our achievements or our privileged position of power, it can be troubling to realize that we might very well be fooling ourselves.  If we are pursuing the "wisdom" of a society that preaches power, greed, control and self-focus as virtues, could we also be missing out on where the redemptive grace and restorative love of the Kingdom of God is being born all around us?

Our Manger Scenes Don't Reflect Real Life - Joe Kay in Sojourner's

We’ve sanitized and romanticized it; removed all the blood and sweat and tears and pain and goo. It’s no longer something real. We’ve left out all the messy parts; the oh-my-God-what-now parts, the I’m-screaming-as-loud-as-I-can-because-it-really-hurts parts.

Figures in nativity scenes are pretty weird, aren't they?

First off, there’s Mary, always looking very fresh and calm and full of reflection — which is quite impressive considering that she just gave birth without any sedative.

Then there’s Joseph, doing some kind of man-thing off to the side — holding a lantern or a large stick. He looks totally composed, too.

And there’s the baby Jesus with a full head of hair, wide-open eyes and arms outstretched like he’s ready to belt out a song.

Not to ruin anyone’s Christmas spirit here, but what the heck?

If our manger scenes were realistic, Mary would be recovering from a painful labor full of sweat and blood, with a look on her face that’s anything but serene. And Joseph — wouldn’t he be a nervous wreck, too? His hand too shaky to hold a lantern?

And about that newborn. Shouldn’t he be red-faced and screaming? Eyes clenched closed and wisps of hair stuck to the top of a head that‘s still odd-shaped from all the squeezing?

Instead, we’ve sanitized and romanticized it. We’ve removed all the blood and sweat and tears and pain and goo. It’s no longer something real. We’ve left out all the messy parts. The oh-my-God-what-now parts. The I’m-screaming-as-loud-as-I-can-because-it-really-hurts parts. The oh-no-I’ve-stepped-in-the-animal-droppings parts.

It’s not about a calm-faced mother and a lantern-toting dad with a perfect baby stretching out its arms to the world. It’s about us as we really are. Bleeding and screaming. Covered in goo and disgrace.

Our manger scenes depict a far different story than ones written 2,000 years ago. Those old stories tell of a young couple that’s been disgraced by questions about the baby’s father. The grand moment comes in a place nobody would choose to bring a baby into the world. A bunch of shepherds are the first to hear the news. Dirty shepherds — among the lowest people in their society. Religious outcasts because they couldn’t observe the purity rituals while working in the fields.

And this baby grows into a man who hangs out with all the unsavory folks in his society. The ones that the religiously observant people call sinners. Poor people. Dirty people. Rough people. All sorts of social and economic outcasts. He even turns fishermen — some of the roughest and lowest people in his world — into his closest friends and followers.

The full article is available here

Advent Call To Worship: May Darkness Be Banished (based on Matthew 4:16)

May darkness be banished! God’s light has come to us! The brightness of the Star leads us. 

We have come to celebrate God’s abiding love. So we say together, "Glory be to God in the Highest,
and on earth; peace forever. AMEN."

Advent Benediction: Where Can We Find This Child? (based on Matthew 2:2)

Like the magi, we want to know, "Where will we find the Savior Jesus who is born to us?"

We will find Jesus in the wisdom and courage of those who seek peace on earth and goodwill to all. We will find Jesus where the oppressed are set free, the excluded are welcomed in, and the downcast are shown compassion.

We will find Jesus where hatred is overwhelmed by love and where the stoking of fear is overwhelmed by hope.

So in our everyday lives, may we work to make our parts of God's world into those kinds of places.

Humiliation In Bethlehem - Verlyn Verbrugge in CRC Network

An actual manger

Just imagine you were a fly on the wall observing the birth scene—yes, I am positive there were flies, lots of them.

As you visualize in your mind the scene in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth, what picture comes immediately to mind?

A clear, starry night, filled with heavenly peace?

 A holy couple, perhaps with halos, gazing at peacefully sleeping baby lying in a spotless manger filled with clean hay?

To me, two words that best describe the scene are filth and humiliation. You don’t usually hear Christmas messages with this theme, but Christmas in the New Testament is not a pretty picture.

The Son of God comes to the broken, hurting earth as a helpless infant. The only way he could communicate his human needs would be by crying, like any infant. (“The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes” occurs only in our songs.) The story of Christmas is the story of Jesus who humbles himself by taking the form of a servant.

If (as most scholars recognize) the so-called “inn” in Bethlehem was actually a guest room of a home of one of Joseph’s Davidic relatives, then our Lord came to those who were his own family, and his own did not receive him.

Have you ever thought about the conditions under which Jesus was born? Most likely Jesus was born in filth with the scent of urine strongly filling the stable area. I doubt if Joseph had sterile gloves to deliver the baby Jesus; perhaps he didn’t even know how to serve as a midwife, but there was no one else around. What utter humiliation!

Just imagine you were a fly on the wall observing the birth scene—yes, I am positive there were flies, lots of them.

The full article is available here

Advent Responsive Benediction: Where Can We Find This Child? (based on Matthew 2:2)

Reader: Like the magi, we want to know,
All: "Where will we find the Savior Jesus who is born to us?"

Reader: We will find Jesus in the songs laughter of children ...
All: "... and in the wisdom of those who seek peace on earth and goodwill to all."

Reader: We will Jesus where the oppressed are set free and the downcast are given hope.
All: "We will find Jesus where fear is overwhelmed by love, where hatred is overwhelmed by grace,
and where all people are filled with joy."

Reader: So in our everyday lives ...
All: may we work to make our parts of God's world into the kinds of places where Jesus can be found. 

Responsive Advent Call To Worship: May Darkness Be Banished (based on Matthew 4:16)

Reader: May darkness be banished!
All: God’s light has come to us!

Reader: The brightness of the Star leads us
All: We have come to celebrate God’s abiding love

Reader: So we say together …
All: Glory be to God in the Highest, and on earth, 
peace forever. AMEN.

Reflection and Renewal: Giving Is Wisdom, Not Foolishness (based on Luke 2:14)

God,

Our self-absorption often distracts us from seeing where God's love is being born out all around us.  It is a love that says, "give" while society says "get," and we are listening to the "get" navigational device on our life's journey.

Or maybe we intentionally avoid seeing it because the Kingdom of God has terrible arithmetic. It is a love that says, "follow this way of life and give your life," while society says, "follow the wisest course and be a success."

The Kingdom of God's wisdom lies in the time-tested truth that the more that we live in love and give it away, the more we are growing toward grace. But to our cynical realism, this seems foolish.

We must confess, we often get this wrong and miss out on "God with us." So we come asking for grace and forgiveness.

Give us wisdom; with ears to hear where the songs of peace on earth and goodwill to men are being sung in your world, and eyes to see where love is being born.

Amen

Jesus' Refugee Experience - Mariano Avila in The Banner

Joseph and Mary had to flee as refugees to Egypt.  They were neither Roman nor Egyptian. They had no claim to a nationality, no army standing behind their rights, and no relatives to offer them protection.  Every aspect of Mary and Joseph’s life got harder once they left Palestine.

We often read the Christmas story and breeze past the holy family’s exile as refugees to Egypt.  Today, a flight from Tel Aviv to Cairo is about an hour-and-a-half long. If we look at map, we think, “Meh—240 miles.”

But Mary and Joseph were traveling on foot.  Joseph was 40ish, Mary was a teen, and Jesus was at most 2, so their walking capabilities varied greatly.   Imagine the family with their toddler in the dark, dodging thieves, soldiers, lions, and feral dogs while carrying liquids in wineskins, solids in sackcloth, and whatever utensils they needed.

2 things happened once the family crossed into Egypt. First, Herod’s power did not extend to Egypt, so Jesus was out of his reach. Second, the family became stateless. Egypt, like Palestine, was under Roman occupation.  They were neither Roman nor Egyptian. They had no claim to a nationality, no army standing behind their rights, and no relatives to offer them protection. 

Lineage was of the utmost importance in a time when birth determined one’s lifelong social status and tribalism was the main social structure. Every aspect of Mary and Joseph’s life got harder once they left Palestine.

Joseph and Mary knew they had to flee as refugees to Egypt, but they didn’t know how long they would be there. At the heart of the refugee experience is wondering how long deliverance will take. For refugees, the longing goes beyond a sense of home. It’s about deliverance from oppression, about God’s justice and mercy.

The best way to describe displacement from home is to compare it to hunger pangs. If you’ve ever skipped a few meals or fasted, you get part of what I mean. Once hunger really sets in, you can’t take your mind off of the fact that you should be eating.  For refugees, the hunger and thirst for justice comes from a deeper place than piety—it comes from pain and suffering.

The full article is available here

Faith Groups Rally Around Migrant Youth - Puck Lo in Tikkun

Congregation members and clergy are creating networks and expanding existing services to support recent and long-time undocumented migrants.

All over the country, communities of faith are on the front lines of a renewed and growing movement pushing for basic aid and a path to legalization for some 11 million migrants living in the United States without legal status. Many are organizing relief for tens of thousands of recently arrived women and youth migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Frustration with the Obama administration’s continued deportations at the rate of 1,000 people a day, plus the humanitarian/refugee crisis at the border, has prompted many people of faith to organize more formally, in the spirit of a “new sanctuary movement,” to support new arrivals from Central America as well as undocumented migrants who have long lived in the United States.

Congregation members and clergy are creating networks and expanding existing services to support recent and long-time undocumented migrants. They’re visiting adult and youth migrants in detention centers, helping them reunite with their families upon release, and collecting and donating money for legal assistance and other needed services.

Most unaccompanied minors are detained by ICE immediately upon arrival. For many groups it has been a struggle to figure out how best to channel the public outpouring of care into support for the real needs of undocumented youth that have arrived.

However there is still a great deal that congregations can do to support undocumented children. Congregations are collecting items to take to children locked up at DHS holding facilities, providing religious visitation and pastoral care, donating for legal services, finding case workers for child migrants facing deportation, doing advocacy work around gang prevention, and opposing changes in immigration law that would make it easier to deport youth.

The full article is available here

Decemberism Crucifies Human Value - Brian Konkol in Sojourner's

Jesus was born in a barn as homeless refugee to an unwed mother. This story is a dramatic repeal of how we often determine human value in our contemporary economic culture.

The dominant dogma of the "holiday" season seems to be loud and clear: Our value as human beings is often dictated by our capacity to contribute toward economic growth.

To be a human of any value in our current context is closely connected with supply and demand, even if it all leads to our personal and public self-destruction.

Decemberism is the predominant religious tradition of the so-called “holiday shopping season." It demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals. It has caused us to have things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.

Decemberism is an explicit form of dehumanization. It is mechanistic dehumanization. Powerful systemic processes – such as our enormously productive and consumptive economy – strip away the dignity of human life by plugging us into mass mechanisms such as Consumerism.

In contrast to the messages we are often inundated with during the so-called holiday season, a proclamation of affirmation and restoration can be heard breaking through the noise.

In an ironic contrast to how our culture tends to experience Christmas, the biblical narrative records that Jesus was born in a barn as homeless refugee to an unwed mother. This story is a dramatic repeal of how we often determine human value in our contemporary economic culture. We are shown that all humans are valuable. The “joy to the world” of Christmas is not a good or service to be produced or purchased, but a radical affirmation of universal human worth.

Decemberism disregards the dignity of all who participate in its oppressive practices. It breeds enslavement; for in our search to produce and consume beyond our natural limits, such a search ultimately owns us, and in the process we are the ones who end up being both produced and consumed.

Perhaps it's time to celebrate this holiday season with with acts of compassion and generosity that affirm the humanity of others in response to the assurance that all people — including ourselves — are of infinite value. Perhaps the time is upon us to recognize the critical difference between human needs and wants, and in doing so, embrace the crucial need for life-giving deeds that build up rather than tear down through ruthless competition.

The full article is available here

The Real War on Christmas ... by Fox News - Jim Wallis

Each Advent in recent years, around the time when those prefab, do-it-yourself gingerbread house kits appear on supermarket shelves, Fox News launches its (allegedly) defensive campaign commonly known as the “War on Christmas.”

But what we actually have here is a theological problem, where cultural and commercial symbols are confused with truly Christian ones, and the meaning of the holy season is missed all together. Much more important than symbols and symbolism is how we live the faith that we espouse. And here is where Fox News’s war on Christmas is most patently unjust.

In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season.  Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.

The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.

The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.

The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.

The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.

The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary’s song of praise for her baby boy: “He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”

The Fox News Christmas would label Mary’s Magnificat as “class warfare.”

So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.

The full article is available here

Why People Aren't Singing Along At Church - Kenny Lamm in Renewing Worship

Many of today's Contemporary Christian Music songs are not suitable for congregational singing by virtue of their rhythms (too difficult for the average singer) or too wide of a range (consider the average singer—not the vocal superstar on the recording/stage).

Prior to the Reformation, church music was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language; Latin.

The Reformation gave music back to the people, including congregational singing which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people.

Church music once again became participatory.  The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased.

But within the past 15 years, a shift in church music leadership has begun to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation, pew potato spectators.  What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church music and the loss of a key goal of music leading – enabling the people to sing their praises to God.

Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participatory environment to a concert event.

We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing. There are a lot of new church music songs today, but in the vast pool of those songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing by virtue of their rhythms (too difficult for the average singer) or too wide of a range (consider the average singer—not the trained, professional vocalist on the recording/stage).

We are singing in keys too high for the average singer. The people we are leading in music generally have a limited range and do not have a high range. When we pitch songs in keys that are too high, the congregation will stop singing, tire out, and eventually quit, becoming spectators. Remember that our responsibility is to enable the congregation to sing their praises, not to showcase our great platform voices by pitching songs in our power ranges. The basic range of the average singer is an octave and a fourth from A to D (more).

We have created spectator events, building a performance environment:  A discouraging trend in church worship lately includes the use of fog machines, lasers, and sophisticated light shows.  This used to be the domain primarily of mega churches, but technological advances have enabled even the smallest churches to blind and deafen their congregations.  This performance philosophy calls undue attention to things other than corporate expressions to God.

The congregation feels they are not expected to sing. As music leaders leaders, we can easily get so involved in our professional production that we fail to be authentic, invite the congregation into the journey of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that experience in singing familiar songs, introducing new songs properly, and singing in the proper congregational range.  Stay alert to how well the congregation is tracking with you and alter course as needed.

Vocalists ad lib too much. Keep the melody clear and strong. (It often helps a great deal to have a member of each gender singing the melody an octave apart from each other so that every one in the congregation has someone to follow).  The congregation is made up of people with limited ranges and limited musical ability. When we stray from the melody to ad lib, the people try to follow us and end up frustrated and quit singing.

The full article is available here

Why Church Keeps Changing & That's Good - Lloyd Rang in The Banner

Church needs to change—as it has in this and in every generation—to remain relevant.  Our time gathered together needs to feel like a living part of our week, not something altogether different from our everyday lives.  One day we will "do church" differently than we do now. And that’s how it should be.

From the age of the apostles through today, church gatherings have always been a complex expression of the interplay between the Christian community and the surrounding community—and a reflection of the attendees’ time and culture.

Our ideas about doing church—and even our ideas about what it means to be a community of believers—change over time.

The world doesn’t end at the top of the church steps. It flows through the sanctuary like a swirling, invisible mist surrounding worshipers who come through the doors with doubts, fears, and thoughts informed by their experiences on the other six days.

In the Christian church, we bring our world into our gatherings so that we can make sense of it together through our shared faith. Our time gathered together needs to feel like a living part of our week, not something altogether different from our everyday lives. Otherwise, the whole thing feels alien and false.

Our intentions need to be more than well-intentioned. They need to be purposeful. Church needs to change—as it has in this and in every generation—to remain relevant.

One day we will "do church" differently than we do now. And that’s how it should be. Pursuing our relationship as a community is the point of Christian community.  The world today is social and interactive. We want to participate in a conversation, not sit still for a lecture.

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: God Shows No Favoritism (based on Galatians 3:28)

God, 

You warmly welcome everyone. You show no favoritism as you work in and through us to heal and restore our lives and our communities in your world.

When you joined the human race, you intentionally counter-acted traditions and practices that were dividing people into "insiders" and "outsiders."

We have to admit; we've done an imperfect job of following Jesus' example. It's an amazing guide, but we seem to struggle greatly to have it shape how we relate to others. Instead, we often set boundaries that limit our perception.

Many times, we're quick to see differences but very slow to push them back to find new grace. We place people in categories, forgetting that this works against what Jesus taught us about how we are to treat others.

And still, even when we are trying to be faithful and sincerely follow Jesus' example, we find it difficult to be grounded in this vision that is larger than ourselves.  We often get it wrong, so we're asking for your help and acknowledging that we need your grace. 

In your kingdom work of restoration, help us to love others for their sake. Help us to move beyond where we are to where we should be. Thank you that you constantly surpass the limits we set on you.

Amen

Responsive Call To Worship - God At Work Is Good News To All

Reader: God is at work in the world,
bringing newness if we have eyes to see it.

People: God, give us understanding;
lead us on your paths.

Reader: Turn our hearts to love;
turn our eyes to truth.

People: The message of Jesus
is good news to all of creation.

Reader: That self-sacrificing, giving
love is open to all.

People: For this overwhelming gift,
we give thanks and sing.

When I Feel Beaten Down and Tired - Ken Gehrels in Network

Life can be lots of struggle, having to strain forward and often wait before there is hope. Sometimes the circumstances of the moment simply are overwhelming. They pull us under and bash us around. 

If you read Psalm 13 you might find it striking that 2/3 of the poem is focused on the struggle. Giving voice to the pain. Expressing the frustration and worry.

They are the words of a beaten down, tired soul longing for an end to the storms and darkness that seem to dominate his life.

Perhaps they are words you are crying, too. Perhaps you know someone for whom you cry this.  “How long, O Lord?”

Only 1/3 – at the end – is about hope. Which is the way so much of life can be. Lots of struggle and having to strain forward and often wait before there is hope. Sometimes the circumstances of the moment simply are overwhelming. They pull us under and bash us around.

I get very impatient with religious circles where it seems everything has to be about neatly combed hair, well-polished smiles and everyone sitting in a nice row in Sunday best; where it’s all about triumph and blessing and happy. So NOT REAL. Nor what God wants.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus that reach out and steady those who are stumbling, hug those that are out of gas, and walk alongside those that are discouraged.

No skimming past the struggles. No hurrying to patch together solutions. No trying to stick a Band-Aid on the wound, or silence the cries. Just being there for each other. The way Jesus was there for people when he was here on earth.

The full article is available here

When The Gospel Becomes A Product - Scott Bessenecker in Sojourner's

If the gospel were only about words, then I suppose it could be wrapped in packaging and sold. But its nature is cosmic and its purveyors are organic. It defies the easy reduction to a sales pitch. 

In our consumerist culture, the good news about God's Kingdom - the invitation to love our enemies, the vision of communities beating their weapons into agricultural implements - has been turned into a product.

An expansive gospel has been reduced to a privatized salvific experience, single-serving sized and commodified.

In the scriptural narrative, I continually see a call for human beings to bring into alignment everything that is bent, to protect the vulnerable, and to contribute to flourishing.  It means we should actively support human flourishing in all its forms wherever we see it.

When the gospel is reduced to a highly individualized and highly privatized experience, we lose the larger picture of God’s plan to make all things new. We see our part in God’s mission exclusively through the lens of producing a convert, not restoring the cosmos.

If the gospel were only about words, then I suppose it could be wrapped in packaging and sold. But its nature is cosmic and its purveyors are organic.

It defies the easy reduction to a sales pitch. If the mission of God is the renewal and reconciliation of all things – people, planet, and powers – then the people of God need to be about the activities of God.

The full article is available here 

Justice Is What Love Looks Like - Cornel West

Not Hiding: Parable Of The Master & Talents - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

What a mess I make when I see my higher authority, the one who provides, as harsh and demanding. Oh, what weeping and gnashing of teeth I endure when I hide out, when I bury precious parts of myself rather than risk having the whole me be brought to the light.

I think Jesus teaches with stories not to give us answers but to urge us to participate. Stories invite us to interact with him, to ask questions, to challenge and even disagree.

We are not being prepared for a pop quiz on Monday; we are being prepared for our lives.

I notice we tend to interpret parables in the same ways we interpret ourselves. If I am feeling judged or judging, cast out, pretty much a failure where Jesus or any other higher authority is concerned, then I see these in the parable. At other times I see myself as having been entrusted with resources and doing as well as I can with what I’ve been given.

One of the things I see today is what a mess I can get into when I am afraid that I won’t have enough, that I won’t be enough. What a mess, when I see my higher authority, the one who provides, as harsh and demanding. Oh, what weeping and gnashing of teeth I endure when I hide out, when I bury precious parts of myself rather than risk having the whole me be brought to the light.

Maybe with in the parable of the Master and Talents, he hopes beyond hope that we will not continue to be stony-faced listeners.

Maybe he wants us to react and stop accommodating the myth of this kind of master, the master of mammon and harsh punishment who would cast people away. We can stand up and come into our own. Jesus is a new kind of master, and we can be a new kind of servant.

The full article is available here

Benediction: God's Spirit Within and Around Us (based on Galatians 5:22)

May we seek God's Spirit within and around us, so that we become agents of restoration and renewal in God's world; seeking justice and mercy and practicing welcoming love that includes all.

Why Every Christian Needs Doubt - Timothy King in Emergent Voices

Without truly doubting and opening yourself to the possibility that even many of your most deeply held tenets of faith could be wrong or inadequate, questioning will remain a mental exercise that does not reach its potential for personal transformation. 

Not only is questioning important to a well-reasoned faith, but it is core to the development of Christian intellect and character.

Doubt is the fertilizer in the garden of faith. Manure and other biodegrading organic matter can at times be unpleasant as they break down. But it is that process of decomposition that makes fertilizer valuable to the garden; part of the healthy balance.

A growing faith quite likely means that what we think it means to "weigh Christianity in the balance" at one point in life, will not mean the same thing later. And that's a good thing.

Without truly doubting and opening yourself to the possibility that even many of your most deeply held tenets of faith could be wrong or inadequate, questioning will remain a mental exercise that does not reach its potential for personal transformation.

Doubt, I would argue, is that state of change that allows for the questions to continue and faith to grow. And as the husks of beliefs that were wrong, too small, or in other ways insignificant fall aside, they join in the process of fertilizing a more perfect faith through their own decomposition.

Faith is not grown by the removal of doubt but by acting in its presence.

The full article is available here

Resisting a Culture of Fear - Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto in Sojourners

Fear will not enable us to tackle the ordinary but destructive arrangements we have created between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. But hope can transform both. 

The world has always been a scary place. If anything, we have become inured to the greatest threats we might face. With roofs over our heads and weather forecasters to warn us of impending storms and economic structures to cushion us from financial catastrophe, we keep many dangers at bay.

Our current compulsion to call today’s tragedy the worst ever is the arrogance of the present day. We feel that we must be the center of history, the moment when everything changes.  Many a sensationalist preacher has declared the crisis de jour to be a sign of the "end times."  That compulsion is driven by fear not sobriety, by anxiety not hope.

And most troubling may be that all that misdirected energy keeps us from loving our neighbor near and far and addressing the real dangers we face as a people. As we worry about some fantastical fear, the reality of a yawning gap between the wealthy and the poor can seem too ordinary and thus not worthy of our attention.

While we tremble at the prospect of an international war that may well be averted or at the threat of a disease that we have a minute chance of catching, we don’t see the victims of that potential war, that ravaging disease. While we worry about the remotest possibilities, the real, daily cries of our neighbor go unrequited.

Too often, we act as if their lives are worthy of our concern only insofar as their affliction might become my problem. That’s called sin.

The kind of fear that is running rampant among us today is debilitating. But love can conquer that fear. Hope can conquer that fear. Faith can conquer that fear. Fear will not enable us to tackle the ordinary but destructive arrangements we have created between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. But hope can transform both.

And when fear subsides, our hands have no need to be clenched in apprehension. They can only open to love the neighbor in need.

The full article is available here

Having What We Need: The Parable of The Lamps - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

I act responsibly about half the time, but expect others to reliably meet my needs the other half. I am five parts filled, and five parts depleted. Having a lamp does not mean I will have enough oil to keep it burning. I might look prepared, but am I really?

In recent passages of scripture in the lectionary, I hear Jesus telling the hypocrite parts of me that I don’t always do what I intend; I set a standard for others that I don’t keep myself; I am not as sincere as I want to seem.  So when Jesus tells this parable about some folks waiting for a bridegroom who has been delayed, I am prepared to see that they, too, might be parts of me. In my long wait for wholeness—my journey to ’10’ you might say—I am found to be equal parts foolish and wise.

I act responsibly about half the time, but expect others to reliably meet my needs the other half. I am five parts filled, and five parts depleted. Having a lamp does not mean I will have enough oil to keep it burning. I might look prepared, but am I really?

All of us run low sometimes. All of us fall asleep. We have perfectly good lamps, capable minds and hearts, but our hope and patience and kindness and forgiveness—the oils that allow us to “shine out loud”—drain away and our spirits darken. The essential oils of all things juicy and creative and alive in us dry up. The eternal flame that burns away the superficial and ignites our compassion grows dim. We cannot be replenished by ourselves. This oil is not a commodity to be purchased. Only you, only I, can plug into the pipeline to be refilled.

We cannot continually resupply what we need.  We simply are not able to give and do and be for each other, or for ourselves, all that is needed all the time.

We can wait together. We can listen for the arrival of love. We can notice each other, and point toward the filling stations. But no one person can be my singular source of hope and creative purpose any more than I alone can be that for anyone else, including myself.

We can only remind each other to get refilled, to return to the wellspring often for replenishment and reconnection with Spirit and/through each other. If we hope to outlast the dark, we will need for all of our lamps, small as they are, bright as they can, to shine.

The full article is available here

Don't Look Down On Me - Listening To Marginalized Voices, CRC Office Of Social Justice

“I’ll ask that the next time you see someone who is different from you, think about what their day is like… And think about what part of their day do you want to be.”

This courageous man who has Achondroplastic Dwarfism was tired of sharing stories about the harassment he experiences in his day-to-day life so he decided to show us instead by filming a day in the life of a person with physical difference. He is not voiceless—but are we listening?




Let us move from compassion to full acceptance as we challenge our perceptions of normalcy.  Read more about the Listen To Marginalized Voices Challenge or the CRC Office Of Social Justice

I Was Hungry & You Fed Me, Even When It Was Illegal - Craig Watts in Red Letter Christians

Those who say feeding those on the streets does not solve the problem of homelessness are right. It doesn't. But it does help solve the problem of hunger. 

Beginning this Friday, October 31st, it is illegal to feed a person on the street in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Many of the people who stood to speak in opposition were from the religious community.

Unfortunately, laws against feeding the homeless are now on the books in 21 US cities.

A recent study by the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte, North Carolina found that it is less expensive to provide permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless than to deal with homelessness through either callous disregard or by means of punitive approaches.

However, because of the common stereotypes many people hold about the homeless (they choose to be homeless, they don’t want to work, they are dangerous drug addicts, etc.), punitive measures are more popular. Help for the homeless, some claim, just rewards bad behavior and flawed character traits. This sort of thinking has allowed cities to move beyond criminalizing homelessness to criminalizing compassion.

Those who say feeding those on the streets does not solve the problem of homelessness are right. It doesn't. But it does help solve the problem of hunger.

Hungry people are desperate people. They are more likely to commit crimes to get the food they need. By making it much more difficult to feed the homeless, the city leaders harm the homeless, harm those who are compassionate and increase the possibility of real crime in the city.

The full article is available here

Very, Very Simple: Love Is The Main Thing - Kayla McClurg in inward/outward

Through which lens are we seeing life?

A lawyer tries to trap Jesus by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

I’m glad he asked because it leads Jesus to clarify the main thing: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Through which lens are we seeing life? Through the lens of the personal, we calculate what will bring the most success, the greatest protection, the most comfort and praise. Through the lens of loving God with all of who we are, we reach out to others, but we know our limits, how we can’t do all that needs to be done. It’s okay. We are not here to be God.

We are here only for the main thing: to love God by learning to love ourselves and letting that love flow to others. We do not have to do all, or see all, or be all. Very, very simple.

We love God by getting to know our whole self, all the hidden caves of our hearts, souls and minds. Only with greater understanding of our most intimate, vulnerable self in all our fractured glory—each of us precious images of God’s strength revealed in and through weakness—are we able to love our neighbor, in whom we see the best and worst of ourselves. It costs us our prejudice, our fear, our religiosity, all our walls and wars—everything that keeps us from the one path, the one pursuit, the single purpose, the all.

The full article is available here

5 Way Churches Can Help Stop Ebola Hysteria - Tom Ehrich in Sojo

 Our society's worst instincts, as always, are to blame those portrayed as being "other," to imagine barriers and travel bans that would protect us, and to turn against each other.   Such nonsense plays well in an election year, at least with a certain portion of the electorate.

Similar instincts served us poorly after 9/11, during various Red Scares, with the migrant children refugee crisis, during the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII and countless other instances. They are like a child’s instinct to hide under a bed: We crouch in fear without thinking first.

Many of our current legislative leaders have little instinct for leadership. They've been willing to harvest votes among the fearful by stoking their fears. All but the most responsible media have joined them in sowing misinformation and fear.

Let’s imagine a better scenario, perhaps even one that faithful people could help to bring about.

1) No cheap blaming.  God isn’t causing this virus to spread through western Africa as some sort of punishment for the people there, or to come to these shores as some punishment of us. Diseases happen, and they spread through a combination of bad luck, human error and ignorance

2) Avoid the hysteria.  Turning to our most primal, base and reflexive instincts is an unreliable way to make good decisions.  We should think critically about who is saying what for what reason.

3) Get informed.  We need to be able to provide useful guidance to children and the vulnerable and take appropriate precautions within our sphere of care and influence.

4) Identify who needs help.  We need to look outside our walls to see who needs help. Beyond family, beyond church, beyond our community — where is help needed, who is already involved, and how can we partner with our support them?

5) Prepare to stand against forces of fear.  We need to muster our personal and spiritual resources and find the courage to face something largely beyond our control. If the Ebola virus breaks out of current containment measures and spreads into the general population, our communities will require people with mature judgment and the courage to stand against the legions of fear.

The full article is available here

Benediction: Being A Blessing Everywhere That We Go (based on Genesis 12)

We have been called to be a blessing in this world which God created and called "good."

So may what we've sung and said here, as well as what we've heard and learned here, continue to guide
us as we do God’s work of bringing out the best in everyone and everything.

Reflection and Renewal: Not Seeking Guidance (based on John 9:1-3)

God,

Sometimes we struggle in dealing with the unknown. Sometimes we worry about all the unanswerable questions and what other people might think, so we stay on the sidelines of life and don't engage your world.

Sometimes we see the unknown as a thrilling thing.  But sometimes, instead of discerning what we are doing and seeking to be guided, we charge ahead full-speed, following our own instincts and desires.
When we do that, we forget to take the time to consider other’s needs or the impact of our actions on their lives.

Other times we have a severely limited view of what you can do, where you can do it, or with and through whom you can work. In our hunger for certainty, we are blind to how big and all-encompassing
your love is, so we can’t imagine you doing and being more than the boxes we try to put you in.

Often we do these things without a second thought.  But even when we try to trust in your way and follow your guidance, we all-too-easily slip into our old, familiar ways of thinking.

So we ask for forgiveness. Help us to have the faith to trust that what you've asked us to do is what we should be doing.  Help us to care for your world and where you've called us to be active in it.

Forgive us for when we've missed the point. Thank you for extending grace to us time and time again.

Amen.

Responsive Call To Worship: God's Presence and Guidance (based on Psalm 16:7-9)

Reader: Let us give thanks to God who guides us
All: We bless the Lord who is present among us, as he is in all of creation.

Reader: God’s wise teaching and kingdom way of living directs our days.
All: We will not be shaken or live in fear even though we may lack certainty.

Reader: Divine Presence sustains us and surrounds us.
All: We will sing God’s praise and worship with joy!

Real Life & The Bible - Brian McClaren

Call To Worship: Trust and Seeking (based on Luke 7:1-10)

God, we come today wanting to believe in many things but actually trusting very few if we're completely honest. Our faith in you may be ragged and worn around the edges, but you’ve promised that you don’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt.

Instead, you welcome all who come seeking; so meet us where we are. You're a God of limitless love, creativity and compassion.

For this, we give you praise.

Next Trip To The Fridge, Think On This - Bread For The World

There is a difference between charity and justice. Charity treats symptoms; justice addresses cause.

Imagine 100 cities the size of New York City, all bunched together in one location. One by one, the people walk by you, begging for a piece of bread or chunk of cheese. And imagine that happening again tomorrow, and the next day and the next.

It is a fact. Every day, 842 million people in the world are hungry. More than one in five children in the U.S. live in households that struggle to put food on the table.

If you doubt this fact, contact your local school and ask what percent of your school district’s children qualify for free lunches.

It matters to God and to Jesus that people are hungry today.  The question is: Does it matter to us?

Don’t get me wrong. Many wonderful things are happening within congregations to feed hungry people. But many of these efforts involve charity.  There is a difference between charity and justice. Charity treats symptoms; justice addresses causes.

A well-worn but appropriate analogy goes like this: A church may stand on the riverbank, rescuing children who have been mercilessly thrown into the current. But eventually, the church should go upstream and ask, “What is creating this crisis? Who is throwing babies in the river?”

God cares deeply about physical as well as spiritual hunger. Jesus did not divide human beings up into sections and say, “I care about getting people into heaven, but not about their empty stomachs.”

The full article is available here

Changing The Climate - Paola Fuentes in Do Justice!

I used to be one of those people who thought that I did not have the time to care about the environment and climate change.

One of the issues that caught my attention was climate change and its impacts on vulnerable communities around the world. From doing research and talking to people that I respect who know a lot more than I do about environmental degradation and climate change, I learned that climate change is a problem and that we need to do something about it. But what could I do? There was that question again.

I used to be one of those people who thought that I did not have the time to care about the environment and climate change because I was too busy caring for people and those in situations of poverty. However, after working in Nicaragua and learning about the effects of climate change on farmers there and then learning that what I had seen in Nicaragua is a common theme throughout the world, I can now resonate with one of the signs I saw at the march that read “Climate Action = Loving our Neighbors.”

It is important for Christians to be a voice in the public square on the issues that matter. Climate change and environmental degradation is one such issue. As Christians, we bring the hope to overwhelming tasks like addressing the climate crisis that our efforts are part of bringing the kingdom of God and the flourishing of all creation on earth.

The People’s Climate March was a global event--hundreds of thousands of people marched in streets across the world to demand action to end the climate crisis. The march occurred on Sunday, September 21, to coincide with the United Nations Climate Summit held in New York City on September 23.  

Participating in the march was both a humbling and an empowering experience. It was humbling to be part of such a large demonstration and to realize the scale and complexity of climate crisis and the large number and diversity of people and organizations working on different aspects of the crisis. It was also empowering because being in the midst of such a large gathering of people helped me to realize the power that we have as individuals when we unite and work together to solve a crisis and demand that our global leaders join and strengthen our efforts.

The full article is available here 

Nobody Is Getting Left Behind - Zack Hunt in The American Jesus

American Christian's love for the rapture reveals a lack of love for the very world Jesus came to save.

The very idea of the church abandoning the world in its time of need is endemic of an American Christianity that is more focused on the self than the needs of the other, more gnostic (concerned with right ideas and escapist hatred of the world and flesh that God created and called "good") than actually Christian, and hyper-focused on the hereafter to the detriment of the here and now.

I’m sorry Left Behind fans, but there is no such thing as the rapture.

The idea of a rapture never even appears on the church’s radar until it was invented in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

You would think that such a pivotal moment in the life of the church would get a least a brief mention by someone like Luther or Calvin or Aquinas or maybe Augustine. But there is only silence.

Why? Because the term "the rapture" never appears in the Bible and - most importantly - the very idea of the rapture is antithetical to the narrative of scripture. The Bible is a story about a God who journeys with people through hard times. He doesn’t pluck them out of danger.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the Bible is not a road map to the future. It is the declaration that justice will be granted to the oppressed, and all things will be made new.

The full article is available here