Cadences of God

  A little homage to the Christmas season. Enjoy the spirit of the season and remeber the one who is the reason for the season!

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Great God of our lives,
for all that is gracious in our lives,
revealing the image of Christ,
we give you thanks. 

For the beauty and perfection of the natural order,
For things great and small, beautiful and awesome,
Seen and unseen splendors,
For the changing of seasons,
For the rising and setting and rising again of the sun,
we give you thanks. 

For human life,
For talking and moving and thinking together,
For common hopes and hardships shared from birth until the time of our dying,
we give you thanks. 

For our daily food and drink,
Our homes and families and friends,
we give you thanks. 

For our minds to think
and hearts to love
and hands to serve,
we give you thanks. 

For health and strength to work,
For the comradeship of labor,
For exchanges of good humor and encouragement,
And for the gift of leisure to rest and play,
we give you thanks. 

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice:
For those who give their lives and work to minister to “the least of these”,
And, filled with your passion, battle
the powers and principalities of the world on their behalf,
we give you thanks.  For marriage:
For the mystery and joy of flesh made one,
For mutual forgiveness and burdens shared,
we give you thanks. For children: for their energy and curiosity,
For their brave play and startling frankness,
For their sudden sympathies,
For the joy they give us,
we give you thanks. 

For the young:
For their high hopes,
For their irreverence toward worn-out values,
For their search for freedom,
And their new ways of expressing the values that never wear out,
we give you thanks. 

For growing up and growing old,
For wisdom deepened by experience,
For the rest of leisure,
For time made precious by its passing,
we give you thanks. 

For death and the completion of our days,
the gateway into your everlasting and loving arms,
and into the hugs of loved ones not seen for many years,
we give you thanks. 

For your help, O God, in times of doubt and sorrow,
Even when we were not sure you were there.
For your healing of our diseases,
For preserving us from temptation and danger,
we give you thanks. 

For the church into which we have been called:
Which, for all it’s faults, is the place where we receive
the Good News by Word and Sacrament;
And for our life together in Jesus Christ,
we give you thanks. 

For your Holy Spirit,
Who guides our steps and brings us gifts of faith and love,
Who prays in us and prompts our grateful worship,
we give you thanks. For your Son Jesus Christ,
Who lived and died and lives again for our salvation:
For our hope in him,
For the joy of serving him,
we give you thanks and praise you, eternal God,
for all your goodness to us.  Give thanks to the Lord, who is good!
God’s love is everlasting.
For the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
For all your tender mercies, day by day,
To you, O God, be praise and glory forever and ever. Amen.  

 

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 By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 15, 6:02 PM ET 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - It’s not easy for Richard Hawke to support the death penalty. The retired Methodist minister knows that his church opposes capital punishment. And he knows what scripture says about forgiveness.

But when he looks at a photo of his daughter, Hawke remembers the intruders who strangled her and killed her two daughters last summer in their suburban home.
Hawke, 76, and his wife have struggled with the issue, confiding in friends, searching the Bible and praying. He said he told a prosecutor: “These people had no right to continue to live in society.”

The United Methodist Church opposes the death penalty, but Hawke said it allows for individual conscience. He described himself as an opponent of capital punishment, with some exceptions for cases involving rape and children.

Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters were held hostage for several hours before they were killed. Hawke-Petit’s husband, Dr. William Petit, was beaten but managed to escape the house, which the attackers were accused of setting on fire.

The young girls — Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11 — were tied to their beds and died of smoke inhalation. Investigators said gasoline was poured on and around them. Hawke-Petit and one of her daughters were allegedly sexually assaulted.

“I don’t think people can imagine the terror that went through the lives of these three women during the hours they were held hostage,” Hawke said of the July 23 attack.
“Our kids weren’t just shot,” he added. “They were tortured and terrorized. I couldn’t get past that.”

Hawke-Petit, who did not know her assailants, was taken to a bank during the ordeal and forced to withdraw $15,000.

Two paroled burglars — Joshua Komisarjevsky, 27, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 44, of Winsted — are awaiting trial in the slayings. If convicted, the men could be executed by lethal injection.

The Hawkes said their daughter’s family was generous and socially conscious, often raising money for multiple sclerosis. Hawke-Petit, a nurse, suffered from the disease.

“They represented everything that was the opposite of those that took their lives,” Richard Hawke said by telephone from his home in Venice, Fla. “They were the epitome of good, and the others were the epitome of evil.”

Jennifer’s mother, Marybelle, said she is opposed to the death penalty but worries that the suspects could eventually be released from prison.

“I think the crimes they committed have merited the loss of their lives or lifetime punishment,” she said. “I would always prefer for there to be lifetime punishment, but I don’t have enough faith in the justice system that they would be held to lifetime in prison.”

Richard Hawke said he could accept a life sentence, noting that the death penalty would take years to carry out.

Hawke-Petit’s church in Cheshire has actively opposed the death penalty, handing out so-called “declarations of life” that members can sign to express their opposition to capital punishment, even if they themselves were slain.

The Hawkes believe their daughter picked up a declaration, but they are unsure if she signed it.

“No one can positively say they saw her sign that and give it back to anyone,” Richard Hawke said, adding that she may have taken it home. “It’s probably burned up in the fire.”
The Hawkes are focusing on fond memories, including visits by their granddaughters to their Florida home. The family enjoyed trips to a wild animal park.

“We’re really grateful we had the number of years we had with them,” Richard Hawke said. But, he added: “We will be in a type of prison for the rest of our lives because of the loss of our loved ones.”

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Alaska is having another gold rush. This one is based on eco-tourism. Over the last few years, Alaska’s income from tourism has exploded. Some of this, no doubt, it due to an increase in advertising for their wonderfully rich natural beauty. However, something else which is helping is that Alaska is warming six times faster than the rest of the country. One of the peculiarities of Global Warming is that the areas closer to the North and South Pole warm exponentially faster than areas closer to the equator.

I am sure someone who knows far more about the science behind global warming could clue you into why that is happening, but this is above my ministerial pay grade. What is disturbing to me personally is that this means there is a visible and very tangible dimension to climate changes which are occurring on the Earth. I know that there is some political debate regarding the reality of what is going on with the planetary environment. So, a few thoughts of my own to add to the mix. 

1. The cause of global warming might be in debate. I will grant this to the detractors of the environmental shifts which are currently going on. However, there is absolutely no question that the shift is in fact happening. Global Warming is a reality, whether or not the cause of this warming is us human beings. 

2. Given that there is a dispute regarding the cause of global warming, we human beings can be sensible about the way in which we disagree here. And it saddens me to think that we are not capable of a civil disagreement on this one. Detractors of the “environmental movement” sometimes talk as if they want the whole planet paved with factories billowing out smoke at every intersection. I do not think they want this. I think they are mad at people who talk too strongly, as if they wanted to abolish pavement altogether. Can we not agree that there is a difference of opinion and find away to meet the needs and concerns of both sides of this issue? 

3. Here is my thought to compromise. “Liberals” (whatever that is) claim that climate change is our - that is human beings’ - fault. However, ”conservatives” (whatever that is) argue that this is a normal planetary shift that is occurring and that human beings have some impact on the environments but that we should not get a big head about how much we influence planetary environmental processes and functions. 

I would argue that we should assume that both sides are right. Let us hope that the conservatives are right on this one, and that this is just a normal shift. But let us act as if the liberals are right, and cut down our waste, pollution, carbon emissions, and all the rest of the garbage that we are spilling out into the air, water, soil, etc. If the conservatives are right, then we will have a cleaner and healthier environment. No harm done! If the liberals are right, then we will have saved the planet AND we will have a cleaner and healthier environment.  Either way, I do not see the down side to green policies becoming more mainstream and common.  

4. The same assumption - that both sides are right - can be used for the ways in which we should deal with this crisis. “Liberals” want federal regulations. “Conservatives” want to have private enterprise receive tax breaks for engineering corporate solutions to the crisis. Personally, why can’t we have both?

5. After all, anyway you look at this, from a Christian perspective this is an easy one. The environmental crisis aside, we should be in the business of caring for the Earth and it’s best interests.  In Genesis 2, God gives human beings the charge of caring for the earth and all its inhabitants. In a sense, we are the earth’s farmers. And that means that we get to use all the minerals and agricultural resources of the planet. But it also means that we have to make sure we take care of the fields so that they can be tilled next year, and the year after, and so on. This is not a choice. Biblically, this is a commandment. If we would be faithful to the God who is Lord of Heaven and Earth, then we can do no other. In this sense, from the perspective of one who would be faithful to God, the reality or non-reality of the environmental crisis is a secondary matter. Being “green” is theologically mandatory. Even if there were no environmental crisis, this would still be a commandment.  Anyway, my two cents.  

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This week, a book discussion at a Roman Catholic parish that was to be led by a lesbian Catholic and her father was canceled after objections from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Carol Curoe of Minneapolis and Robert Curoe of Bernard, Iowa, were suppose to speak at St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church about their book, “Are There Closets in Heaven? A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story.” However, after various conservatives contacted the archdiocese, spokesman Dennis McGrath contacted St. Francis Cabrini and St. Joan of Arc, the church where Carol Curoe, her partner and their children worship.

The talk went on at a different location: Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ in Minneapolis. McGrath said he advised St. Francis Cabrini that “it wasn’t a good idea” and that Archbishop Harry Flynn would not approve of a lesbian who is “in an actual full sexual relationship” speaking at a church.

He added: “We welcome gays and lesbians in the church, and there are many, I’m sure, who go to many of our parishes. But they have to follow the rules … they cannot be sexually active.”

Of course, this begs the obvious question: How do you know they are sexually active?!?! Does this couple need to get a restraining order on a church looking into their bedroom windows?

While one might object that this couple had children, since both women are, well, women, then there is no way this could have happened through sexual activities of any kind. While it might be argued that this couple has been seen kissing in public, this in itself is not an item to condemn, since all under this item half of Europe would be considered gay and lesbian. Of course, it is nothing that this couple lives together. Many same sex couple live together as room mates for economic convenience. If this were not so, nearly 100% of all college students would have to be classified as homosexual. Neither does it mean something that this couples’ children refer to them as their parents. Such designations are fluid in an era of mixed families.

This leaves only the couples own admission that they have sex. Still, this is hearsay, and if the church wants to prohibit this couple from entering the church and using the church grounds as if they were full members, then the church is going to need to come up with some hard and concrete evidence that this is a couple living in sin.

If the church is going to become a body with closed minds, closed hearts, and closed doors - then I want them to back up their bigotry and go the distance! Let’s see how far they are willing to back up their bigotry.

Gandhi once said that they key to his techniques was to draw out the lunacy of his opponents, to make them see what they were doing with their own eyes. If the British thought they were “compassionate”, then let them beat and murders thousands of people and tell the press about their “compassion”, and see if they still have the stomach for it.

I agree. Let the church stand in people’s bedrooms and take photos. Let it be done by the rectors, pastors and priests. If they think this is all about rules, and they thing everyone should follow the rules, then let THEM follow the rules. Back it up, or pack it up and stay quiet!

Phew! Thanks. I needed that.

Tags: Politics, Gay Rights by Administrator
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First Presbyterian Church of Dallas get a nod today, from me and (I pray) from heaven itself.  

Rev. Joe Clifford, the church’s senior minister, says his congregation has made its property available as an open-air shelter in response to a crackdown on the homeless by Dallas police.

The church provides portable toilets and security guards to ensure the people are not preyed upon by criminals or drug dealers.

In an interview he gave Reuters, Pastor Clifford said: “In September the police began enforcing ordinances more strictly, such as one against sleeping on the sidewalk”.

“Most of the police don’t like doing this job. Who becomes a cop to hassle homeless people? But it’s our belief that this is not a criminal issue but a social one,” he said.

Clifford, who sees helping the poor as Biblically sanctioned, said a few people had been sleeping on the church grounds but word quickly spread that since the church’s land was private property, the police were not allowed to clear the homeless away. Now between 150 and 200 people camp out there on any given night, which has angered many local business men.

As far as I can tell, First Presbyterian Church of Dallas has done a good jobn at remembering the one they serve, Jesus who had nowhere to lay his head (Lk 9:58), who was a stranger “and you welcomed me” (Mt. 25:35) and who told his followers “blessed are the poor” (Mt. 5). No less do they serve His Father in heaven who sung: “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82).

You guys get my good and faithful servant award!

   Drop them an e-mail and let me know you think they are doing a good job!

http://www.presbyterians.org/

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September 5, 1997. Two people die. One in Calcutta, India. The other in Bayonne, NJ. The first person goes to heaven. Her name: Agnes Bojaxhiu, also known as Mother Theresa. The second person, we will call him Merle. He was known to the world as Merle. And Merle, well, he also went to heaven.

On a day like the Feast of All Saints, we take time to remember all those people who have gone before us in the Christian walk. Saints are people that we usually think of as having golden halos and being made of stained glass. The title “saint” comes from the word sanctus, which is Latin for “holy”. So, when we say, “Saint John” or “Saint Andrew” or “Saint Mary”, we are literally saying “Holy John” or “Holy Andrew” or “Holy Mary”. So, a saint is a person who is really, really holy.

Saints are people – in our mind – who in the business of being really, really holy - never swear, fast a lot, and do good deeds all day. They are always in the business of saying things which are wise and beautiful and sometimes even witty at the same time. Really cool saints can even do neat parlor tricks, like heal the sick, raise the dead, or even levitate when they pray.

The Bible has a very different idea of what a saint is, however. A saint is not someone who prays so much their knees bleed. A saint is not someone who does so much work for a homeless shelter that her hands are chaffed and cracked to the bone. A saint is not someone who has studied scripture so much that they are wise beyond the ways of all us mortals. A saint does not wear robes, build arks, or have three visions of God before their morning coffee.

In the Bible, a saint, a holy one, a sanctus, is anyone who is admitted into the presence of God in the company of the angels, into eternity. A saint is just another title for a person in heaven. Every person in this room who hopes to one day make a home with God in heaven, will be a saint. Every person who has already passed beyond the celestial gates of infinity, and resides in that place where “the home of God is among mortals” and where “he will dwell with them as their God; [and] they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; [and] he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. [And where] Death will be no more; neither mourning nor crying nor pain will be any more” – every one of them is a saint.

Both Mother Theresa and Merle are enjoying that kind of peace, that kind of personal attention from the Father of Lights, the Lord of Glory, and the Prince of Peace. They dine at the same table, sing hymns with same choirs of angels. They are a part of the same book club with Johnny Cash, C.S. Lewis, and Dr. Livingstone, I presume. They get together on Friday nights with the other members of their bowling team – Norman Rockwell, and Jerry Falwell, and the meanest bowler of them all, Elvis, “King of the Lanes”.

And why shouldn’t Mother Theresa and Merle be in the same place? This is all very fitting. Most people do not stop to think about it, but Saint Theresa of Calcutta and Saint Merle of Beyonne have – in fact – the exact same qualifications for heaven. Seriously! It is true! As much as Saint Theresa deserved to be in heaven, so did the blessed and holy Merle of Beyonne.

See, God makes the qualifications for heaven very clear in the Bible. The qualifications are nothing less than perfection itself!

You have to be perfect in holiness and love. Matthew 5:48: Be ye perfects as your father in heaven in perfect. Genesis 17: I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you.” Deuteronomy 18: “Thou shall be perfect with the LORD your God.” 2 Corinthians: “Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you”. Want that blessed heaven with God forever afterwards? Then all you need is perfection, like God himself is perfect, just like Mother Theresa was perfect. Just like the great and fabled Uncle Merle was perfect. Both deserved the riches and glories of Heaven itself!

Now, maybe you find this all a little odd or even very disturbing. It is a little odd for many people to think that Uncle Merle is actually Saint Merle. Odd to think of him with his pot belly, in his easy chair, reading his copy of TV Guide, with a halo round his head, and angels singing about him in glory. But, there it is. The Bible says you have to be perfect to be in heaven and it says that people like Uncle Merle, no less than the Mother Theresas of the world, are saints in heaven.

How can that be?!?!

The reason is less shocking than you might imagine . . . See, maybe uncle Merle was no mother Theresa, but – you know what - Mother Theresa would have been quick to tell you that she was no Mother Theresa either. Most true saints know that they are sinners, imperfect, impure, given to weakness, doubt, strife, and that they have their bad days the same as any other person alive. Yes, sometimes, even Mother Theresa sometimes felt like strangling the person in front of her who brought 3,000 items to “20 Items & Less Express Lane” at the supermarket.

Mother Theresa fell short of the glory of God’s perfection no less than Merle. She lied (at least once), if only when she was a little girl. There were days when she was not sure of who she really was or what she was doing with her life. Her private letters to that effect were just published. She (at least once), if even for a nanosecond, liked something more than God. As a flesh and blood woman – she must have though some married guy was very handsome (at least once). There were days when she was tired and did not want to get out of bed.  So, take you pick – whether it was bearing false witness, unbelief, idolatry, lust, adultery in her heart, or sloth – she was a very sinful woman. Surely, if anyone deserved Hell for all her iniquity upon iniquity, it was that vile reprobate before God, the sinner Mother Theresa. 

Merle, well Merle fell short of the glory of God on all the same accounts. Hey, maybe he even fell short on a few extra counts, too. But, perfection is the requirement and you are either perfect or you are not. No horseshoes. No hand grenades.

What we miss when we name people as saints in the church, is that most core doctrine of the Christian faith: that God is God, and that we are not God.

What makes a person holy and acceptable to God, what makes a person perfect as their Father in heaven in perfect, is not your long list of amazing spiritual accomplishments. Mother Theresa is not in heaven because she held a 100,000 people while they were dying and whispered to them the love of God. Uncle Merle is not in heaven because he went to church every week, and that pleased God enough to look past it bad TV choices.

Theresa and Uncle Merle met requirements for heaven just the same . . . they didn’t. Neither of them deserved to be in heaven if the price of admission is perfection or love and holiness.

Both Saint Theresa and Saint Merle are in heaven because they loved God, they served God, they lived lives of deep and humble faith. Both are in heaven because of their desire to be faithful to God, and both were taken into heaven in spite of the fact that they had lots of failings as people.

Scripture teaches us in Romans that “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside, together they have all gone wrong: no one does good, not even one.” You, me, Mother Theresa, and yes – I dare say - even Uncle Merle.

Heaven is something that none of us deserves. And yet, if we give our hearts to God, it is a gift that we receive from God, our greatest gift from God, offered unto us because of the blood of his Son Jesus - you, me, Mother Theresa, and yes – I dare say - even Uncle Merle.

Today is our day to take a breath, to stop, and to remember all the great company of saints in light. None of them deserved heaven, but they all got it. They all got it because every one of them took their lives and gave them as gifts to God. Some of them did it better than others perhaps. Some suggest that Mother Theresa served better than Merle, and they are welcome to that opinion. But, from the eyes of God, Jesus had to die for their sins, both, just the same. And from the perspective of a parent who had to give up his only Son, it probably did not matter much that his Son needed to die more for this one and die less for that one. Dead is dead is dead; and a lost son is a lost son all the same.

Today is our day to take a breath, to stop and to remember the great company of the saints in light. They served God. They loved God. They let their faith spread through their blood and bones. And they lived what they breathed – even if they were not perfect about it.

Today is our day to take a breath, to stop and to remember the great company of the saints in light, because in a sense they have never left us. The great Mother Theresas, no less than the John Wesleys, Martin Luthers, Apostle Peters, and all the rest still inspire and move us to be live our faith a little better tomorrow than we did today, and follow them in trying to be a little more perfect – even if we never get there. But, just as those greats inspire us, so does Uncle Merle. Maybe he was your mother, or your father, or a friend from school, or grandparent, or a husband or wife, or a child, or someone you never knew well – but there was something about their story that touched you in a way you have never been able to let go of. They have never left us and never failed to guide us, if we will listen to them.

Today is our day to take a breath, to stop and to remember the great company of the saints in light, because once they were us. And because we hope to be remembered and honored after we are gone. Hopefully, if our hearts are in tune with honoring none but God, we do not hope to be honored for all the good and impressive things we did with our lives. Mother Theresa and Uncle Merle would not have us remember them for their accomplishments, either. But we should remember them for what God did through them, acts of the divine both great and small, bringing about in their own true way the Kingdom of God. And we can honor that as we hope to be honored in the same way when the number of our days has come to a close.

Today is our day to take a breath, to stop and to remember the great company of the saints in light, because one day, if we can give our hearts to God as they did, we too will be in their company. Now, maybe that will have nothing to do with a book club with C.S. Lewis, or bowling with Elvis.  I suspect it won’t. But knowing where they are, and knowing that God saw them there in spite of the fact that they did not deserve to be there anymore than we deserve to be there, they gives us hope for long walk from cradle to grave, to the glory beyond the grave.

Take time this day to remember them all . . . the Theresas, the Merle, the parents, siblings, friends, heroes of yesterday. All of them. This is their day. And, by the grace of God, one day, it will be ours as well. May it be so. Amen.

Tags: Salvation, Death, Heaven, Hell by Administrator
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