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A Prayer about Being Kept and Blessed

A Prayer about Being Kept and Blessed

Merciful Lord,

This Sabbath day, 

we thank you for the many ways 

you have blessed and kept us:

You have blessed us 

with faithful churches and ministers 

who preach the good news about Jesus.

You have kept us 

with your guiding and guarding Word 

and with wise friends 

who bring us good counsel.

You have made your face to shine 

your grace and saving love upon our hearts 

as surely as the spring sun warms our faces.

You have shone your glory over us 

and soothed us with your peace, 

making us whole again.

Now send us out as mirrors 

of your glory and grace, 

reflecting your love 

to all we meet this week, 

bringing your saving and keeping light and love

into a dark and gloomy world. 

In Jesus’ gracious name. 

Amen.

Read Numbers 6:22-27.

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A Prayer about Bearing One Another’s Burdens

A Prayer about Bearing One Another’s Burdens

Merciful God,

How exquisitely you have designed your church, 

the body of Christ. 

You have called us to share our weakness

with you and with one another, 

and you tell us that in that weakness 

we find our greatest strength

—strength in dependence on Christ, 

strength in dependence on one another (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). 

Today, I pray especially for those in our body who are weak—

the bereft grieving the loss of a loved one, 

the caregiver serving a loved one through many hard days, 

the sick and frail struggling with illness, whether physical or mental….

[Name some weak people you would like to pray for….]

May we truly lift them up, not only in prayer but in service,

by bearing their burdens—

listening without trying to fix,

bringing meals or mowing lawns,

forgiving their irritability…

[Name some ways you might bear the burdens of someone who is weak….]

We pray too, that you would empower the weak 

with the humility and grace required 

to receive the loving care of the body of Christ. 

In Jesus’ burden-bearing name. Amen. 

Read Galatians 6:1-10.

Friends, I’m excited to be offering a workshop for caregivers as a part of an event considering the “Practical Theology of Death and Dying” to be held at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS April 23-24. For more details, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fpc-evening-of-life-event-tickets-150820763965.

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A Prayer about Worshiping the God Who Delivers Us

A Prayer about Worshiping the God Who Delivers Us

Merciful God,

Today, as we gather, whether in-person or apart, 

we remember your steadfast love which endures forever (Psalm 107:1). 

We have been in distress, 

from our own foolish and “sinful ways” (Psalm 107:17), 

from prisons of our own making 

and prisons of others’ oppression (Psalm 107:10). 

Even as we have “drawn near to the gates of death,” (Psalm 107:18),

We have cried out to you in our trouble, 

and you have delivered us again and again from our distress (Psalm 107:19).

You have sent out your word and healed us; 

you have delivered us from destruction (Psalm 107:20).

We thank you with full hearts 

for your “steadfast love” 

and for your “wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:21).

In Jesus’ saving name. Amen.

Read Psalm 107:1-43.

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A Prayer about Honoring God with Our Lives

A Prayer about Honoring God with Our Lives

Lord God,

May it not be so! 

As we gather today whether together or apart, 

to worship you, may our hearts be near to you. 

May our worship of you not be 

merely “man-made rules learned by rote” (Isaiah 29:13).

Even as we sing your praise today, 

send us into this broken world as citizens of your kingdom, 

showing others we care more for them than we do ourselves 

by sacrificing our comfort and our agendas, 

disentangling ourselves from political enmeshments 

in earthly kingdoms, 

loving friends, neighbors, and especially enemies.

Such is the true worship you have called us to. 

By the power of your Spirit, and through faith in Christ, 

empower us to worship you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and body. 

In Jesus’ worship-worthy name. Amen. 

Read Isaiah 29:13-16.

Six Ways You Can Help Your Church Right Now

Six Ways You Can Help Your Church Right Now

Is it just me, or does it seem like the coronavirus has the potential to infect our churches spiritually, to taint our healthy functioning as the body we were meant to be? I’ve been re-reading the apostle Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians about who they are as a church. As Eugene Peterson explains, the Corinthians were “all jockeying for preeminence, asserting themselves and at the same time putting others down. Each one claiming that what they had was better than what others had”[i]  Paul calls the fractious and fractured community to live as the renewed body under Christ their head. From his charge in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and other letters, we discover six gospel principles that will strengthen our health as a church body during this difficult season.

  1. See your sin, and note how it has corrupted your healthy functioning (1 Corinthians 11:18).

Paul frankly points out the Corinthians’ sin: “I hear that there are divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18). Sin has twisted our body parts, causing dysfunction—just as I will never raise my hand again without some pain in my shoulder due to a worn-out rotator cuff, sin hampers our free movement. Given our sin, can we possibly function as we were meant to function? Paul insists that in Christ, the Spirit has given us gifts for the “common good,” gifts that build up and strengthen the body as a body” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). In Christ, we are set free from the binding yoke of sin to function as the renewed body part God has designed us to be (Galatians 5:1). We must “go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

  1. Submit to Christ, who is the head of the body (Ephesians 4:15-16).

We must lean into our union with Christ, who is the head of the body. We must grow up into him, as Ephesians 4:15-16 instructs. Christ makes the “body grow,” restoring our healthy function, equipping us to “work properly” (Ephesians 4:16). Christ, the head, is the brains of the operation. He transforms our minds, conforming us to his image, stimulating us to move fluidly in faith, hope, and love.

  1. Strengthen the weaker members (1 Corinthians 12:22-23).

Whether physically or spiritually. Perhaps you don’t struggle with worry or fear, but your brother does. His sixty-seven-year-old sister died due to complications of the coronavirus; he witnessed its ravaging effects. He wants to wear a mask when he returns to church, and he wants you to wear one too, for his protection. He knows that singing is the third leading cause of spreading the virus, and he doesn’t want to sit in front of unmasked people while they sing. What will you do? What would Paul suggest you do? Strengthen the weaker member.

  1. Serve the other members of the body as service to Christ (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).

You have a gift: you must use it to serve the rest of the body, not to hamper the rest of the body. The eye shows the body where to go and keeps it from stumbling over hindrances. If you’re an eye, watch carefully. The whole body stands on the foot. If I’m a foot, I’d better act like a foot, or the body will fall over. The ear alerts the body to danger. If you’re an ear, listen up, and lead the body away from it.

  1. Suffer with other members (1 Corinthians 12:26).

As Paul explains, “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Just as we would never slap our own faces or pummel our own bodies, we should beware of writing a scathing post on Facebook that might injure another member of the Church. Because our actions affect others in our body, we should consider before we speak, share, or act, “Would this word or deed contribute to the suffering of my own body?”

  1. Celebrate other members so that all may rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26).

On the other hand, when we honor other members, respecting differing viewpoints within the scope of Scripture (mask or no-mask; staying home, going out with appropriate cautions), we will rejoice together. In a word, we will do what a healthy church body does: we will worship. In all of our words and deeds, let us aim for rejoicing together, because the body was not made to be divided.

Dear friends, in this season, let us take up the whole armor of God, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Let’s not merely protect our own bodies from the coronavirus; let’s protect our church body from the virus of sin, which causes dysfunction and division. God God has chosen and exquisitely designed this body, and each of us as individual members. Let’s lean into the more excellent way of love, which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). As we do, we have the opportunity to bring the hope and healing of the gospel to a hurting world.

 

[i] Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2007), 1790.

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Sunday Morning Coming Down, or Why Church Matters

Sunday Morning Coming Down, or Why Church Matters

How I learned that church matters…

Does church matter? It’s not uncommon these days to hear people say, “I believe in God, and I read my Bible and pray, but I don’t need to go to church.” Are they right? If we are regularly reading the Bible, if we are regularly praying, do we really need to go to church?

The short answer, I believe with all my heart and mind, is “yes.” In church, in fellowship with other believers, we hear the Word preached, and it changes us (Romans 10:17). With the body of Christ, we take part in the body of Christ, and we grow up to look like him (1 Cor. 10:16). Other believers encourage us, cheering us on, weeping with us, rejoicing with us, praying with us, serving with us, sharing the good news with us (Hebrews 10:24-25).

I could go on like this, making an argument for the necessity of church. But today I want to share a story, of how church first communicated God’s grace to me, and why, despite struggling with several broken church stories over the years, I consider it a non-negotiable spiritual grace.

Before there was church: “Silent Sundays”

I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt…the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert…

Maybe not the best lyrics for a seven-year-old-girl to have stuck in her head, but Kris Kristofferson’s song, as performed by Johnny Cash, is the song line of redemption that to this day, reminds me of why I love church.

I’m pretty sure the song played every Sunday morning we visited my Dad’s little rented ramshackle farmhouse, where he moved after my parents divorced. The album cover, with Johnny’s head looming large, sat propped on the three-foot-high wooden box speaker.

In that season of our lives, Sundays echoed with the “disappearing dreams of yesterday.” Sundays were the day of exchange, when my brother and I were returned from our weekend visit. Sundays were weighty, too quiet, sad.

Weighty and sad, there was indeed something in a Sunday to make you feel alone. #church #story Share on X

Because of blue laws, Sundays were sleepy. Nothing except church opened on Sundays until 1. We didn’t go to church, at least not in the early years of divorce. At my mom’s, the sound of solitude echoed through our little apartment as the morning hours crept by. At 12:45, the three of us would pile into her little beige Toyota Corolla and venture out to Treasure Island, the 60’s predecessor to Target, with its wavy roof and vast concrete jungles that were beginning to pave paradise.

Don’t get me wrong. Not all Sundays were so sadly silent. There were picnics at the park and plays at the community theater, fall mornings throwing the football and spring days playing tennis. There was goodness and sweet and light. But it seemed that darkness hovered, threatening to overcome it.

Johnny Cash crooned out the longing I couldn’t quite place:

Somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing, and a Daddy with a laughing little girl he was swinging….

Church and “laughing little girls”

It was at church that I first caught glimpses of the laughing little girl inside me. At my grandmother’s house, where my brother and I stayed for a month in the summertime, Sunday meant church. More than once, I was sent back upstairs to put on my slip (a thin undergarment that we wore under sheer materials like dotted swiss!!). We went first to Sawnnnn-da School, as my grandmother assured everyone I used to call it. We sat at small tables under the kind expression of blue-eyed Jesus (Yikes! I didn’t say church was perfect!) and colored lost sheep. After church, as a special treat, we went to the church library and checked out clean-smelling hardback books.

When my brother turned sixteen and had the freedom to drive, he decided we should start going to church. In fact, he decided that we ought to be confirmed. (I never thought to argue). We had been baptized in a small chapel as infants, and over the years, we had occasionally visited the colossal cathedral when our mom or dad, whoever had us, was attending. Now, as teenagers, off we went, Sunday mornings for church and Sunday school and back on Sunday afternoons for confirmation classes. Sundays now offered purpose and structure and something to study, which this little teacher-girl always loved.

Now there was something in a Sunday that made the body not feel so alone. #church #story Share on X

Even after I was a confirmed member of the Church, it took me another year to understand the meaning of church, the essence of Christianity (Again, I didn’t say church was perfect!). When I was 15, at a weekend Christian retreat, I sat on a rock under a starry sky and spoke to God the only three words I fully understood at the moment: “I need you.”

Now there was something in a Sunday that made the body not feel so alone. There were daddies with laughing little girls and the luscious smell of someone frying chicken (well, that was on Wednesday nights at a later church). But that was still not what Kristofferson, what Cash were really missing.

The “something lost somewhere along the way” was The Story, the gospel, preached, lived, and taught. Church is a place where those who smoked their minds the night before—and those who didn’t—come to consume the message we crave, the message of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, the message of grace, the message of our one true hope.

Kristofferson’s words ring true:

And there’s nothing short a’ dying
That’s half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

Yes, there is sorrow and loneliness and pain to be found in the church. But here, in the hospital for sinners that offers hospitality to strangers, the light overcomes the darkness. It is a place where the song line of redemption meets the sound of sleeping city sidewalks. It is the place where we sing and tell the only story that truly satisfies the loneliness and longings of Sunday morning coming down.

Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash

Sunday Morning Coming Down

by Kris Kristofferson

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I’d smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I’d been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I’d lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothing short a’ dying
That’s half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singing.
Then I headed down the street,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing,
And it echoed through the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothing short a’ dying
That’s half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

Exercise: Write your own church story:

  • Why not write or tell this story: What’s your story with church? Consider these questions to get started:
    Did you go as a child and stop going along the way?
  • Have you experienced redemption at church?
  • Do you have a broken church story?
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