Pastoral Prayer - February 3rd (Noel UMC)

Dear Friends, let us now go to God bringing whatever it is that is on our hearts, knowing that God is present among us and that God is listening to God's people.

 

Would you pray with me?

 

God of grace, patience and love,

 

We come to you today seeking forgiveness for all the times we have failed you. For all the times we have failed to live up to the people you have called us to be. For all the times we have failed ourselves. We ask that you look past our sinfulness and our doubts. We ask that you mend the broken places of our hearts and fill the empty spaces of our souls for we are a broken people.

 

Continue to mold us and shape into the people you call us to be. We are desperate for healing, we are desperate for forgiveness and we are desperate, indeed, for the promise of redemption to be renewed in us and through us.

 

For all the times that we fall short. For all the times that we shut you out of our lives. For all the times we rebuild the walls you continue to tear down. Oh Lord, have mercy on us.

 

Again and again, we pray with everything we have, Lord. We pray for this church and its leaders. We pray for our community and the people who walk through our doors each and every day. We pray that this place would be a place where your Spirit is felt and where you and your disciples may call home. 

 

We thank you for your faithfulness to us and to this community. For the renovation of this sacred building, for the faithful leaders you have blessed us with and for the responsibility of the task ahead. For the new church officers and congregational care ministers. In their times of struggle and decision making, we ask that your peace be with them and that your spirit guide them. May we ever look to You for guidance and for discernment, oh gracious Lord. 

 

God we are your people and again today we come into this place seeking to find you in the songs, the prayers, the sermon and the sacraments. We are again listening …. Waiting for your voice to be heard. Wash over us in these sacred moments and allow us to be still and know that You are God.

 

(Silence)

 

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I pray, Amen.

It's Time, Go!

“Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshipped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 16-20 (Message)

The cool thing about Scripture and interpretations is this: many people see/receive many things from them. The above Scripture is one that many denominations/traditions interpret in many ways. I love the way The Message version eloquently expresses the tension of some disciples, “Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.”

No matter how you interpret, view or look upon this passage you have to admit that this phrase captures the emotions and reservations of the disciples perfectly. I can imagine that the disciples were a group of people with different backgrounds, different stories – much like us FTE Fellows. We all came to this place with different stories, different ways of interpretation, different callings. I can also imagine how reserved some of us might have been on those first few days. Some people simply holding back, struggling, preventing themselves from “risking themselves totally.”

The Good News for us is that Jesus remains undeterred. Regardless of what we bring to the table or how we approach our days, Jesus is right there to give his charge. For us, The Holy Spirit began to do its magic and by the end of day two you could feel a sweet Spirit in the air working in and amongst us, loosening the hold we had on ourselves. Rev. Mike Waters put it best at the end of day four, “there’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.”

Today, we all witnessed how awesome and magnificent the power of the Holy Spirit is. Closing worship is always powerful, but there was something about today’s worship that really summed up our entire week at the conference.  You could feel the power and witness in the songs by the choir. You could feel the sincerity and vulnerability in the sermon.  You could feel the hurt and pain in the voices of those who led us in the Hip Hop Prayers, “These are the prayers of my people,” Rev. Waters said. The most powerful moment, for me, was the prayers at the end of the service when we all gathered around our roundtable leaders.  It was simply a moving experience. God truly was there with us. It was a beautiful experience, one that served to move us to action, to realize our call – our commission.

No matter what we bring to the table, no matter where we are along our journey, no matter our struggles or strengths Jesus remains ready to send us to Galilee.  “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go!”  It’s that simple, just go!

I pray that God moves you in a mighty way towards action – action that is honest, humble, sincere and genuine.

“God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

The Beloved Community

Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method which you suggest is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies—is the solution to the race problem. (and for any problem for that matter)
—Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957

As day two of the FTE Conference comes to a close I find myself spiritually exhausted. If you've ever preached a sermon you know what I am talking about. Spiritual exhaustion is that moment when you have given or received your limit of spiritual food for the day. I mean we all get "full" when we eat right? It's the same concept. Currently I am suffering from a severe case of spiritual "fullness." 

Today was our first day to dive right in and explore the in's and out's of The Beloved Community - a radical vision inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King. It was a vision grounded in the promises of grace, love, mercy, compassion, and healing - promises that, he hoped, would alleviate the race problem and bring healing and justice to our society. It was a heavenly vision inspired by his interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 

Today we talked a lot about building and understand what a Beloved Community really is. After day two I think I am understanding just what Dr. King envisioned. 

This conference is a Beloved Community. We are a community of believers gathered together under the auspices of grace and love for one another working toward a common purpose and goal - spreading the love of Jesus, living in intentional relationships with those around us, being accepting - not tolerant of people around us (I don't believe in tolerance - tolerance creates a binary of "us" tolerating "them"), and working towards the common good of humanity. 

This morning in Opening Worship Becca Stephens, found of Thistle Farms, said, "in the end, grace and love are the most powerful elements of social change we have" echoing the words of Dr. King. "Love is creative and redemptive," he said. Love is a way to redeem things that are broken and create new ways of being among struggle and strife. 

Though all of us gathered here at this conference may not agree on doctrine, polity, or policy of our churches or communities we can agree on love and grace being expressions of right action and not simply right belief.  

A theologian by the name of Bruce Epperly once said, 

"We have too often proclaimed the equality of humankind and defined some persons as non-human, unworthy of self-determination, equality, or loving relationships. We have affirmed the quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and condemned some persons, based on the accidents of economics, ethnicity, or sexuality, to lives of misery, duplicity, and limitation." 

The promise and hope that can be gathered from this is that change is possible and has happened. The church is equipped with leaders, much like those at this conference, who will change how we experience church and how the world perceives of the church. Leaders who have different gifts, but all these gifts when combined, manifests into a mighty and powerful ministry for the glory of God.

We can do it, I promise ... but only through grace and love of God, neighbor, and self. Change is happening, equality is possible, and God still sits on the throne!  

Glory to God, Amen. 

Lent is About Discipleship: An Ash Wednesday Reflection - Rev. Juan Huertas

Lent is About Discipleship: An Ash Wednesday Reflection

"Jesus in the French Quarter" © 2012 Todd Rossnagel

This past Sunday I had the great joy of baptizing three month old Jane. It is always an honor to gather people around these important times in their life. As she laid quietly in her mother’s arms I asked her mom to renew her own baptismal promises and to make a covenant to raise Jane into her baptism.

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world,
and repent of your sin?

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you
to resist evil, injustice, and oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves?

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior,
put your whole trust in his grace,
and promise to serve him as your Lord,
in union with the Church which Christ has opened
to people of all ages, nations, and races?

(The United Methodist Hymnal, p 34)

Living into these promises takes the community into which we have been initiated and it takes intentionality and a constant rehearsal of what these promises mean. After all renouncing, rejecting, and repenting takes the continued work of the Spirit in us, accepting, resisting and confessing requires the same.

So as I poured water upon her head I wondered if we ourselves recognized the magnitude of what was happening here? As we welcomed another into our community of the baptized, did we see it as an entrance into the community of those who have made covenant to the Lordship of Christ, to the way of sanctification?

Each time I begin ministry with a new congregation I am thankful for the season of Lent. Here in Louisiana it is common for many to give something up, chocolate, cokes, alcohol . . . As I enter these new spaces I remind the community of something that has transformed my own Lenten journey: Lent is not primarily about giving up instead, at its core, is about discipleship, about those who are preparing to make baptismal vows and our renewal of those vows in light of Easter.

This Lenten season I am thinking about Jane, about how we as a community of believers will model for her the meaning of what John Wesley called Christian perfection, our journey towards a fully sanctified life.  How do we help one another open ourselves to the work of God’s Spirit in sanctification? How do we allow our worship, our devotional life, our service to the world shape our souls into reconciling love? How do we grow into justice seeking, forgiveness, and radical hospitality?

So it begins today, with our recognition of our humanity and our need for divine grace. It begins with God’s invitation to change our hearts and life, to turn from sin and death, and believe the good news. It begins with our gathering as God’s people and the mark of our baptism being made visible.

Here we go again Jane, your family is about to begin a journey we’ll take together for the rest of our lives. A journey into the promise of our constant conversion, our perfection in love, our sanctification, the Risen Lord made evident in us, for the life of the world!

Let us observe our Lent thus, giving our sufferings, our bloodshed, our sorrow the same value that Christ gave to his own condition of poverty, oppression, abandonment, and injustice. Let us change all that into the cross of salvation that redeems the world and our people. And with hatred for none, let us be converted and share both joys and material aids, in our poverty, with those who may be even needier.

- Archbishop Oscar Romero