Benediction: Welcoming Love That Includes Everyone (based on Isaiah 43:19)

May we seek God's Spirit within and around us, so that we become agents of restoration and renewal in God's world. May we seek to be God’s hands and feet and to practice welcoming love which includes everyone.

Reflection and Renewal: Oceans of Justice, Rivers of Mercy (based on Amos 5:21-24)

God speaking to his people:

"Religion that doesn’t seek justice and love mercy rings hollow to me. I am the God who stands with the poor, the marginalized, the refugee, the orphan, the foreigner in your land, the widow, the oppressed.

Do you know what I really want? I want justice - oceans of it. I want mercy - rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want."

Journeying As Spiritual Discipline: Changed On The Way - Marjory Bankson

Pilgrimage - journeying beyond our own comfort zone - will do that; shift focus, explode prejudice, reveal God in a new way.

Retreat is a time to step back, survey the field and listen for God’s whisper. Pilgrimage is a “call of the wild,” to be open to discomfort, challenge and the rough wild path of change. Spiritual seekers need both.

In Mark 7:24-37, Jesus wants retreat. He’s gone to the beach in Phoenicia, to get away from pressing crowds. Mark says he didn’t want anyone to know he was there. But then a local woman comes to beg a favor. She wants Jesus to heal her daughter.

He tries to protect his privacy. He’s snippy and cold, using language close to a racial slur: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

She swats back: “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

With that rhetorical slap in the face, Jesus himself is changed. His world expands. He’s on the rough wild way of a pilgrimage now, suddenly seeing with new eyes, hearing with fresh ears. He drops an old view, accepts a new reality. Jesus has been changed on the way.

Pilgrimage - journeying beyond our own comfort zone - will do that; shift focus, explode prejudice, reveal God in a new way.

The full article is available here

Thoughts On John McArthur's "Social Justice & the Gospel" Statement - Daniel José Camacho

The statement on "Social Justice & the Gospel" by these conservative evangelicals needs to be seen for what it is; a misguided reaction - based on fear - which is intent on sacralizing the interpretations of privileged white men.

This statement attempts to bifurcate social justice concerns from the Gospel and paint these concerns as secular impositions on scripture.

This statement sees "intersectionality, radical feminism, & critical race" as ideological enemies of faith & as inconsistent with biblical teaching.

But what does this practically mean?

The result is smuggling in various prejudices and presenting them as purely "biblical.”

The statement on "Social Justice & the Gospel" needs to be seen for what it is; a misguided reaction - based on fear - which is intent on sacralizing the interpretations of privileged white men.

The full article is available here

When Christians Sell Out To Empire For Political Power - Religious News Service

What is the cost of this wholesale Religious Right sellout? Among other concerns ... is the plight of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities around the world, as well as Muslims fleeing terrorism and civil war fought with chemical weapons, who have been all but abandoned by the Trump’s near shutdown of the long-standing U.S. refugee resettlement program.

On August 27, the Trump White House hosted something like a state dinner to "honor the leadership of American evangelicals."

Many cabinet members were present, along with the president, the first lady and dozens of members of the group of informal evangelical advisers (Religious Right leaders mainly) who enjoy unique access to President Trump, including Trump's spiritual advisor Paula White; the 3x married heretical prosperity gospel preacher.

It’s the latest puzzling contradiction raised by evangelicals working in the service of a president whose character and so many of his policies stand in direct contradiction to the words of Jesus.

What is the cost of this wholesale Religious Right sellout? Among other concerns is the plight of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities around the world, as well as Muslims fleeing terrorism and civil war fought with chemical weapons, who have been all but abandoned by the president’s near shutdown of the long-standing U.S. refugee resettlement program.

However, it's not surprising that most of the president’s evangelical supporters are not lobbying on behalf of Muslim refugees. Some of them were calling for a Muslim ban before Donald Trump did. Inexplicably ... soul-wrenchingly ... fully 3/4 of white evangelicals supported the president’s initial executive order barring refugees and Muslims from entering the country.  (A refresher on Jesus' Good Samaritan parable would seem to be in order).

The full article is available here

The Church Shouldn't Coerce Because God Doesn't Coerce - Anthony of Sourozh

Benediction: A New Way Of Life In Our Everyday Lives (based on Matthew 6:10)

In our everyday lives, may God's spirit within us and all around us help us to be hopeful in seeking, thankful in receiving, and joyful in finding.

May we embrace the way of life which Jesus both taught about and modeled for us, which can help to align us with our calling to work towards bringing out the best in everyone and everything.

The Cliches Of Popular Religion - Thomas Merton

Call To Worship: Where Love Rules Over All (based on Proverbs 16:7)

The Forge (Swords Into Plowshares) by Bo Bartlett

God of grace, we have come to catch a glimpse of your kingdom of kindness; a world where loves rules over all, where enemies embrace. We want to see a world where division and fear disappear in light of your love. 

We come to be reminded again of who you are, what you've done, and what you will continue to do. You are loving and trustworthy, with limitless and overflowing grace, and you don't give up on us.

For this, we give you thanks and praise.

Call To Worship: God Is Always Within and Around Us (based on 1 Corinthians 3:16)

God is gracious and merciful.  God is full of compassion and love. Even though we may feel alone at times, God is always within and around us.  For this constant and tireless grace, may our hearts and souls be filled with gratitude.

So let's join together and give thanks.

Call To Worship: God Is The Creative Spark of All Life (based on Isaiah 6:3)

God, you are the creative spark of new life. We have come seeking you in this new day. As the architect of life and wholeness, we ask that you would open our souls to your stirring. 

Spirit, you are the creator of awe and beauty. Open our eyes to your ever-surrounding and indwelling presence.

Jesus, you are the one through whom everything came into existence. Open our hearts to your love and hope.

Everything that God creates is good. The entire universe is filled with God’s goodness. For this all-encompassing grace, we give thanks and praise.

The relationship between U.S. evangelicals & Putin's Russian Orthodox Church - The Christian Century

The greatest peril that both groups face in forging these alliances with nationalist authoritarian movements of Putin and Trump is political co-optation. After all, the gospel is NOT about stabilizing national identity or securing national pride.

U.S. evangelicals had formed an odd alliance of their own with leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. American evangelicals are led to make common cause with Russian Orthodoxy - and with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin - because of a deep and shared suspicion of postmodern Western cultural progress and diversity.

Sexual and gender politics have generated the most culture war heat for these 2 groups, but “traditional values” have also included nationalistic tropes like patriotism, respect for the military, and the celebration of historic religious national identities (which are idolatrous), as in “Christian America” or “Holy Russia.”

The language of "traditional values" is a slippery slope. While there may be much that Christians through the centuries have been able to agree upon, issues of sexuality, gender, and war require ongoing theological reflection and clarification.

Moreover, appeals to so-called "traditional values" tend in practice to marginalize non-Orthodox religious groups in Russia and both non-believers and non-evangelical believers in the U.S.

The greatest peril that both groups face in forging these alliances is political co-optation. Afterall, the gospel is not about stabilizing national identity or securing national pride.

Both U.S. evangelicals and Russian Orthodox hierarchs could do much more to resist the unjust policies and totalitarian tendencies of their respective presidents and to work to move their nations - and churches - toward self-examination, humility, and repentance.

The full article is available here

Call To Worship: Take Up Our Cross and Follow (based on Matthew 16:24)

Loving God, you call us to turn away from our own selfish interests, to take up our cross, and to follow you. To find our lives, may we live them in service of your mission.

As we come before you this morning, give us open hearts and open hands. Make us eager to hear your voice and seek your guidance. Open our minds to your ever-present spirit that is always moving within and around us. Open our spirits to your nudging and open our lives to your love.

Call To Worship: Doing Work of Jesus In The World Today based on Luke 4:18

Our job is to bring the spirit of Christ’s message and to do the work of Jesus in the world today. In Luke 4:18, Jesus said that work was to: “... [t]o proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoner,  recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free.”

Today, it is up to us to be the good news of love and liberation. We can do this once we see the world through the eyes of God, who sees those who are suffering and oppressed as “blessed.”

For this boundless and limitless grace, we give thanks and praise.

Call To Worship: Re-centering Ourselves With God's Presence (based on Matthew 22:39)

God, you call us to live in ways that honor you and bless our neighbors. Your goodness is our source for the love, justice, and peace which you've tasked us with pouring out into your world.

So we come once again seeking to recharge in your life-giving presence. As we re-center ourselves around your perfect love, may you shape and reshape our hearts to be more like yours.

May what we say, sing, and hear this morning open our spirits to connect with you, God, and lead us to be your hands and feet to the world which you created and called "good."

Benediction: May We Be All About Life (based on Ephesians 2:10)

As we go out from here to our parts of God's world, may God's love be where we find our identity. May that love help us be "all about life," bringing peace, hope, care, and comfort to any and all who are in need of it.

Call To Worship: The Expanse Of God's Love Shaping Who We Are (based on Genesis 1:31)

As we gather today God, help us to listen so that we may hear your voice in this world that you created and called “good.” God, open our minds to the vast expanse of your love. Help us to allow it to shape who we are. God, open our eyes to see your fingerprints in all that surrounds us, so that our lives will be worship to you.

Reflection and Renewal: Our Stories Shaped By Larger Stories Around Us (based on John 10:27)

God, thank you for the power of stories to move us, to inspire us, and to guide us. Thank you for the way that you've designed life to be meaningful and interconnected, for how our smaller stories are part of the larger stories around us.

If we follow what Jesus taught and modeled, we are invited into your love's larger story, a story that Jesus always inclusively expanded the scope of.

But we don't always give your story our undivided attention. We live in the midst of other powerful stories which have entirely different priorities than yours; stories which tell us to see everyone else as competitors to be bested by any means necessary, that tell us to look out for number one, that tell us that the way to become great is to acquire and wield power, wealth, influence, and control.

When we live pursuit of those aims we can end up being "of the world, but not in it." When we follow those skewed values, we often withdraw from others and miss the work of renewal and restoration that you've tasked with living out in your world.

Forgive us. Helps us to keep your love's story as our primary guide. Give us awareness when we've tuned it out in favor of contradictory narratives, even unintentionally. Help us to grow from "life being all about us" towards "us being all about life."

On The Mountain Top - Jeff Wiersma

Up on the mountain top, there's a pristine calm and peace. The sky is stretching on forever in all directions. Pretty much all that I can hear are birds singing, insects buzzing, and the gentle afternoon breeze in the trees.

Every so often, a jet goes by thousands of feet above; a mechanical interruption of the otherwise-natural serenity. Instinctually, I’m extremely annoyed by this unwelcome interruption. But in my quest to let all things me by teacher, I pause and decide to calm down. As I do, I'm reminded of the real world - away from this mountain top - where we all live; where there's noise and clamor, busyness and greed, violence and disharmony.

The contrast between the peace and quiet of the mountaintop and the perpetual noise and busyness of the real world are reminding me of how much life is an art of balance.

The mountaintop feels quiet and safe now, in the afternoon; but should I remain here after the sun sets, it might not be. It would be extremely risky to try to make my way down mountain trails in darkness, let alone the nocturnal wildlife I might encounter!

And while the world below this mountaintop can be a grind, it's also where the people and places that I care about - which bring my life meaning and fulfillment - reside.



We need experiences of both solitude and fulfilling usefulness to the world in order to be well and whole. We need contemplative times of quiet and solitude so that we can cease striving for awhile.

The time away from the treadmill of "work, produce, consume, and repeat" allows us to refill our soul's reserves, which are often drained by the demands of everyday life. Without times of reflection and literal recreation, we become calculating and cynical realists; we become solely results-oriented.

Ignoring our innate need for quiet often leads us to withdraw inward to protect the self, but can quickly lead to an insular view of life.

As well, we need meaningful real world lives in community. After all, we are hardwired to be about the work of doing what our's to do to bring out the very best in everything in our portion of the world.

Ignoring our innate need for interconnection and "being human together" leaves us as less-than-fully-living beings.



To use the times of each day when we are awake and asleep as an analogy; time away from the busyness of life is the "sleeping" to the "waking" of everyday life.

If one goes without sleep for too long, the ability to continue to function declines precipitously. Deprived of rest, our cognitive abilities quickly become impaired.

If one sleeps and never wakes, nothing in life would get done. What's ours to do in the work of rehumanizing our world would be neglected. Those who rely on us to help meet their needs would be deprived and would suffer.

And so we must balance our times of sleeping and waking to be a whole being. As far as analogies go, I find it instructive.

Reflection and Renewal: Not Being Fully Present Makes Us Miss Grace (based on Psalm 103:12)

God, when you look at us, your view of us isn’t defined by the things that we’ve all done wrong. Instead, you see us in the original goodness that you created the entire universe with.

If we're honest, we have to admit that we're not nearly as good as you are at seeing the world in that way. We tend to hold onto lingering unforgiveness and grudges towards people we've seen do wrong.

We often define people solely based upon their moments of imperfection. This can keep us from seeing them as people who you've called us to help to bring the best out of.

Other times, we form finals opinion of others before we’ve even met them - based on their appearance,  their status, their ethnicity, or a whole host of other preconceived notions. We’re so used to quickly  devaluing people in this way that we often do it without even meaning to or without even realizing that we’re doing it!

Forgive us. Help us to better at being aware enough to be fully present in our lives. Help us to remember the truth that your all-encompassing grace can be found in each and every moment.

Amen.

Benediction: Being Fully Present To Actively Listen and Be Aware (based on James 1:19)

As we go out from here into our parts of God's world, may we practice being fully present in our lives so that we can actively listen for, and be paying attention to, all that needs healing, renewal, and restoration; both within us and around us in God's world.

Call To Worship: As We Gather, Help Us To Be Fully Present (based on Psalm 46:10)

God, as we gather this morning, some of us may be distracted. Help us to feel some calm. Some of us are carrying worry. Help us to feel some peace.

Some of us have lives that are cluttered. Help us to find some room to breath. Some of us have minds that are racing. Help us to feel some stillness. Some of us are clinging tightly to things due to fear. Help us to feel some calm.

Help us to be fully present as we come seeking connection with you and each other.

When Patriotism Becomes Idolatry - Stephen Mattson

Too often, what U.S. Christians think of as "patriotism" God defines as "idolatry."

Separating God and country is difficult for many US Christians to comprehend because too often we incorporate nationalism and patriotism into much of our religious expression, and even our faith. 

It’s not uncommon for churches to celebrate the Fourth of July, adorn their sanctuaries with US flags, and incorporate manifest destiny and nationalism into songs of worship. But for the very first followers of Jesus, these types of ideals and symbols would be alarming and even considered blasphemous.

Unfortunately, Christians have been historically gullible to nationalistic “Christianity,” and often treat our faith as a civic religion where we can establish a voting bloc and create enough influence to legislate laws, gain wealth, and consolidate power rather than sacrificially serve and love others.

A faith hindered by patriotism is highly selective and irrationally loyal according to partisan opinions. But perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of “nationalistic” Christianity is that it narrowly restricts our faith to those within a very small tribe.

When Nationalistic Christianity thinks anyone or anything “attacks” or “disrespects” the US or our “American Ideals,” sadly, it often reverts to patriotism mode.

The full article is available here

Call To Worship: Doing Work Of Jesus In The World Today (based on Luke 4:18)

As followers of Jesus, our job is to bring the spirit of Christ’s message and to do the work of Jesus in the world today. In Luke 4:18, Jesus says that work is: “... [t]o proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoner, recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free.”

It is up to us to be the good news of love and liberation.

So as we gather, may we learn to see the world through the eyes of God, who sees those who are suffering and oppressed as “blessed.” May we learn to listen for the call of “Your Kingdom come, on earth as in  heaven ..." which cries out all around us for God’s restoration, mercy, and healing here and now.

God, may your kingdom come as we give thanks and praise.

The Contemplative Stance Is The 3rd Way - Richard Rohr