Sunday Afternoon Prayer: Confession for Christ the King

This morning I was privileged to lead the confession and assurance during worship at Hamilton (MI) CRC.  I share here the words and prayer I led. 

In the church year, today is Christ the King Sunday.  This is a Sunday to remember that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  And it is a day to remember Christ must reign in our hearts, minds, and bodies.  But as we look at our hearts, minds, and bodies, we see how we have set ourselves up as king.  Let us confess that sin before God and each other. 

Gracious God,

You gave Jesus the highest name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

But so often we refuse to bow.  We want to stand and be our own lords.

Our hearts are full of pride that thinks first of ourselves. 

We are selfish with our time, our abilities, and our money.

Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy.

Our minds do not always acknowledge your kingdom.

We assume that we are right and everyone else is wrong. 

We use our minds to judge people who are different from us

Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy.

We use our bodies for our own purposes instead your purposes.

We use our bodies to hurt other people and your good creation.

We also do harm to our bodies by not caring for them well.

Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy.

In your great mercy and love, forgive us, Lord.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Even though we rebel against Jesus’ kingdom, God still loves us.  Hear these words: (Recited by two young boys from the congregation)

1 John 4:10-11
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

People of God, know that you are forgiven and live at peace.

Photo by Jason Train.  Used under a Creative Commons License.

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: A Prayer for Those Who are Lonely

I met a profoundly lonely woman this week.  This is my prayer for her, and for all others who feel alone.

 God of the Broken-Hearted,

There are so many people who are lonely in this world.

Left behind after the death of their husband or wife.

Wishing that they had children to care for them as they age.

Devastated after a marriage disintegrated.

Missing friends who had to move away.

Unable to sustain friendships.

Forced to leave homeland and family to flee for their lives.

Feeling alone in the midst of a crowd.

Jesus, you know this feeling.

You cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

To each person who feels you have forsaken them,

Show up in a profound way.

May they know you as Emmanuel, God-with-them.

God-with-them when they sit in their apartment alone.

God-with-them when the tears pour down their face.

God-with-them as they wonder if this will ever end.

God, work through your people, the body of Christ, the church. 

Inspire your people to go out of their way to find the lonely-hearted.

Give them time and patience to walk with them through dark valleys.

May the body of Christ become our new family,

A place of trust, where the lonely find solace,

Where they met you.

In Jesus’, our Emmanuel's name.

Amen.

Photo by Dino ahmad ali,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinoowww/4125584110/.  Used under a Creative Commons License

Don't Worry?: A Sermon Excerpt

Sometimes, sermon texts are a struggle.  Sometimes they are confusing and it is hard to understand what it is really trying to say.  Sometimes we don’t like what the text says.  Then there are the texts that are fairly straightforward to understand, but hard to apply in life, like the text I had to preach on this past Sunday: Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus’ words on not worrying.  It was a sermon (like most sermons) I had to preach to myself first.  I liked how it turned out, so I am sharing part of it here.

Jesus is not saying that these things of life are not important.  He doesn’t say we should go without food or clothes or a job or home.  And Jesus doesn’t say that we won’t have any trouble in the world.  But he does tell us how to respond to the troubles and the worries that come.  Jesus says we can quit worrying about our lives.  We can quit worrying.

Then he gives us two pictures of why we don’t need to worry.  First, Jesus says look at the birds of the air.  They don’t plant or gather crops.  They don’t put food away in storerooms.  But your Father who is in heaven feeds them.  Aren’t you much more important than the birds? 

Think about the birds that are coming back to Michigan right now.  They aren’t planting food, but they are busy creatures.  They are out finding food.  They gather materials and build a nest.  They will soon be laying eggs and caring for them.  After the eggs hatch, they have to bring food for their babies and help them learn to fly.  There are lots of things that birds do in life.  But God takes care of them.  God controls the sun and the rain.  He makes the plants grow that birds need to eat.  God watches over the birds.  God provides for them.  And God says that people, created in God’s image are worth much more than the birds.  If God takes care of the birds that well, he will take care of us even more. 

And then Jesus gives another picture.  He says look at the wild flowers.  They don’t have to work or make clothing.  But those flowers are more beautiful than the best dressed people in the world.  I was so happy this week when the daffodils finally bloomed.  Look at how bright they are.  After such a long, long winter they finally bring a bit of spring.  They don’t have to put on make-up or buy expensive clothes to be beautiful.  They just are. 

But they don’t last long.  It is supposed to get hotter this week, and I think that by a week from now, these flowers will be wilted and starting to get brown.  Even though they have a short life span, God made them beautiful.  If God cares so much about making the flowers beautiful, won’t he take care of you and me, too?

“Your faith is so small,” Jesus said.  Maybe that’s another way to say: “Your God is so big.”  God created the world.  He made the sun and earth and birds and flowers.  God created us.  And God takes care of the world.  He cares for the sparrows.  God watches over the flowers.  And even more so, God cares about us.  Later, in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus says, “Aren’t two sparrows sold for only a penny? But not one of them falls to the ground without your Father knowing it. ³⁰He even counts every hair on your head! ³¹So don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31, NIrV).

God cares for us.  God knows the number of hairs you have on your head.  God knows when the little sparrows fall to the ground.  And God loves you much more than the sparrows.  We don’t need to worry, because our big God knows us and loves us. 

And God has shown that he is faithful.  Over and over again in the Bible, God made promises to people.  And over and over again, God kept his promises.  God promised Noah that the whole earth would not be destroyed again by a flood.  God kept that promise.  God promised Abraham that his family would be as many as the stars in the sky.  God kept that promise.  God promised David that a member of his family would always be king.  And God kept that promise in Jesus.  God promised that he would defeat sin and Satan.  God kept that promise.

And so we know that God will keep his promises to us.  God makes promises to us in baptism.  God promises that we belong to God, that we are his children.  God promises that we have died to our sin and risen with Christ.  God promises that he will be with us always.  God promises that nothing in life or in death nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God.

Thanks be to God!

Sparrow photo by Paul Stein, used under a Creative Commons License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapkap/415668818/

Daffodil photo by Ian Britton, used under a Creative Commons License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/freefoto/3370278750/

Rainbow photo by B.J. Bumgarner, used under a Creative Commons License,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/homer4k/263070945/

UK #11: Two Different Churches in York

After Edinburgh, I headed south, back to England.  My destination was the ancient city of York.  York is strategically placed where two rivers meet.  The Romans built a fort here in 71AD.  Constantine was in York when his father died, and he was crowned emperor in York.  

Ruins of a tower of the Roman city

In the 600s, the Pope sent a bishop to York, Britain's second bishop.  During the next several hundred years, Christianity grew and many churches were built in York.  Then the Vikings invaded and settled in York.  Eventually the surrounding Anglo-Saxon kings defeated the Vikings, but then 1066 came, and Britain was defeated by William the Conqueror.  By 1070, William appointed a Norman Archbishop of York, who began to build a large church.  In the middle ages, they used the Norman foundations of the church to build the York Minster over the course of 250 years.  They also started St. Mary's Abbey with French monks.  This was dissolved by Henry VIII when he split with the Roman Catholic Church. 

Me (at a strange angle) with the ruins of the abbey church behind me

 York has a long and interesting history with many interesting historic sites, with the most magnificent being the York Minster.

York Minster

The York Minster is BEAUTIFUL.  Words can't describe it. My point-and-shoot camera was pretty inadequate, too.  The building was built in phases over hundreds of years--generations of craftsmen spent parts of their life working on this building.  Their goal was to bring heaven to earth in this building.  While we don't know exactly what heaven will be like, I think that we last least get a glimpse in a building like this.

Interior of York Minster

The York Minster is still a working church. The tour guide said that their Sunday Services are still fairly well attended and they have programs for children.  They also have daily services.  I wasn't in York on a Sunday, so I went to a weekday Evensong service, which comes at the end of the work day.  Much of it is sung by the Minster choir. It is a liturgical service of prayers and sung and spoken scripture.  York Minster is an Anglo-Catholic Church of England church, which basically means they are as close to Roman Catholic practice as you get on the Protestant continuum. 

At the service I attended, there were plenty of tourists, who were very obvious because they weren't following the order of service by closely (one of the people in front of me gave me a strange look when started to say the creed).  But there were also people who belonged.  Mothers with kids in school uniforms carrying instrument cases like they were on their way to or from lessons.  The worship and the prayers were very heartfelt.  It was a very formal setting, which gave a sense that this is true and important, but it was also living.  God is here.  And God has been caring for his church for centuries.

York is a city full of churches.  These days, there are plenty of empty ones that aren't used as churches any more.  But right next to the Minster is a smaller church that is in active, thriving use.  It is called St. Michael Le Belfrey.  It is also a Church of England, but from the evangelical/revival stream, more like St. Mary's in Poole.  In fact, it was an early leader in this movement of church revitalization in the 1960s and 70s.  The story of those days is told by the pastor at that time, David Watson, in the book You Are My God (out of print, but I read it from the Calvin library).

St. Michael Le Belfrey Sign

Today they are still a vibrant church with a number of different services.  I went to their Wednesday noontime service.  Because it is winter, it was held in their church hall, not the church building itself.  It was about 50 people, mostly retired folks, it seemed.  It was a simple service--a song, a prayer, scripture reading, and teaching sermon.  There was a lunch after the service.  It was obvious people knew and cared for each other.

One thing that struck me was that the leaders made sure to explain things as we went.  They didn't assume that everyone had been Christians their whole life.  And the gentlemen that sat next to me, that I was able to chat with for a few minutes said he had only been a Christian a year and a half.  He said he is still learning new things all the time.  Thinking about this, it is probably more welcoming for someone who is a bit older when they consider Christianity to come into a place where people don't assume you know things because you have been a Christian all your life.  I think this is a challenge for us in the CRC and West Michigan in particular, because the vast majority of people in our churches 60+ have been Christians all their lives and probably went through Christian schools.  They are fairly well-educated in Christianity.  How do we make space for their colleagues and neighbors who didn't grow up in the church or left it long ago?  

In most of the evangelistic/renewal churches I have visited, there is careful attention to making sure things are explained so people with less church background can join in.  Even simple things, like after announcing that the reading is from the book of James, saying "that's near the end of the New Testament" to help people locate it in their Bibles.  When I attended Monroe Community Church, a CRC church plant at that time, the pastors were pretty conscious of this.  They always introduced themselves when they got up and introduced the way we did things.  Sure, those of us who were regulars didn't need to be told that we could get up and get a Bible from the table by the pole, but it made space for the visitors among us.  In a way, it says that our borders are open, we,re prepared to welcome new people in.  It seems that many established churches are less conscious of this--we just do what we do.  I think that we have things to learn from the British church about how to present Christianity and the church to people without any background in it, and that number is rapidly increasing in our society.

UK #9: My Reformation Conflict in Edinburgh

It is probably almost heretical for me to admit this, but after spending a couple of days immersed in Scottish history in Edinburgh, I have mixed feelings about the Reformation.  

I started my historic tour at the famous castle.  It is an impressive fortress and told the story of centuries of war or fragile peace between Scotland and others, mostly the English.  The castle mostly eliminated references to the religious forces shaping many of the conflicts (which is an interesting observation by itself), but other sites were more balanced.  In the 1500-1700s, many of the conflicts were at least influenced by what was happening in the church.

Edinburgh Castle from the outside

I visited St. Giles Cathedral, which despite the name, is known as the "mother church of Presbyterianism".  John Knox was the pastor here from 1559-1572, as the Reformation conflict roared in Scotland.  It is an interesting church because it has a number of side "aisles" which are sort of like large alcoves off the main sanctuary area.  On one side of the church is the Chapman Aisle, which has a memorial to James Graham, who was loyal to the crown and Catholicism.  He was executed and later buried in a crypt beneath the church.  On the other side of the sanctuary is St. Eloi's aisle, which has a memorial to Archibald Campbell, a supporter of the reformers and a bitter enemy of James Graham.  He was executed too.  Many wonderful things resulted from the Reformation, but they came at a high price.

Center of St. Giles Cathedral

Then I went farther down the street to John Knox's house.  Historians think he only lived here the last few months of his life.  Before that, it belonged to one of Mary Queen of Scots' jeweler and goldsmith.  In the fighting that surrounded the Reformation (which led to Mary being forced to abdicate the throne for her son James VI), the goldsmith stayed loyal to the queen and the Roman Catholic Church.  He became part of a revolt to return her to the throne, but they lost and he lost his worldly goods as well.  The house was empty and Knox's health was failing, so he probably lived and then died here.

Dressed as John Knox for a photo

Today the house is a museum.  It captured much of the complexity of the Reformation and the pain it caused the nation.  It has early copies of Calvin's Institutes and a portrait of Knox by Theodore Beza (who knew he was an artist?  I missed that in Church History).  It shares the tremendous impact Knox had on the church, and his illustrious ideas for education for all and care for the poor.  

But it also shares the story of the original owners.  Although we might say they were on the "wrong" side, I suspect they too were trying to do the right thing, and paid the price.  The Reformation wasn't just a war of words waged through the books, letters, and confessions we read today, it was a war.  People died for their beliefs--on both sides.  And that makes me sad.

I also went to the National Museum of Scotland.  It is huge, beautiful, and informative.  I could have easily spent an entire day there.  In their galleries about Scottish history, they had sections about how Christianity came to Scotland and the effect it has had.  I was a bit horrified to see some of the effects of the Reformation, like instruments of torture used on suspected witches.  Instead of feeling proud of being a product of the Reformation, my time in Edinburgh left me wishing there was another way.  

Inside the Museum

At my classical exam (last step for ordination), one of the questions was something like what do you love and hate about the church?  I remember saying that I hate how the church is fractured into pieces and we continue to fight about things, if not on Reformation scale, on the local-church scale.  And I do hate how things divide us into different Christian branches and denominations.  I hate how some Christians can't take communion with others.  I hate how we judge and say this is the only way you must practice faith.  

And yet at the same time, I am so thankful for the Reformation.  I am thankful that I can read the Bible in my heart language and so can people from Nepal and Burundi.  I am thankful for our passion for God's word.  I am thankful that I don't have to go through anyone (and no one has to go through me) to communicate to God.  I am thankful for the Reformation's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, so we all have important parts to play in the church.  I am thankful for our confessions that help us to teach and learn our faith.

I just wish that it didn't come at such a high cost.  I wish that Protestants hadn't reacted so harshly on so many occasions.  

I hope and pray that in my lifetime I will see parts of the church come back together instead of splintering more.  I hope that we can worship and serve together with brothers and sisters of different Christian background.  I hope that we can all have the humility to learn from each other and not just assume that our way is the way.  And I long for the wedding feast of the lamb where I hope we will all get to take Mass/Eucharist/Holy Communion/Lord's Supper together as one body.

UK #5: Adelaides in Glasgow

Monday marked a transition in my trip.  I left Poole and people I knew or got to know and set out on solo travel across the UK.  I started by traveling north, to Glasgow, Scotland.  I wasn't in Glasgow for very long, sadly.  But I enjoyed the time I had.

When I was preparing for my trip, one of the accommodations listed in Rick Steves' Great Britain 2013 is Adelaides Guesthouse.  It is in "a multitasking church building."  A tiny bit of internet research showed me that they are in the same building as Adelaide Place Baptist Church.  The guesthouse had an opening for the night (I turned out to be their first guest of 2013, as they'd been on a holiday break) so I made a reservation.  Then I sent an e-mail to the pastor of the church, telling him about my trip and asking if he would be available to meet with me the afternoon or evening I would be there.  To my surprise, he quickly wrote back and said yes.

So Monday afternoon, I spent some time with him, hearing how it came to be that their church building also houses a guesthouse and nursery (day care center).  The congregation has been worshipping in this building since 1877, and it is in the city center.  Like many such churches, members started into move to the suburbs, and membership started declining.  

About 18 years ago, they discovered dry rot in their building, which would cost a significant amount to repair.  They had to grapple with what to do about their building.  At about the same time they did a survey of areas of ministry need.  They found that there were six areas of need, and they couldn't address them all.  They decided to focus on the business community, partly since it is less common than ministering to the urban poor or students.  They thought creatively, and decided to start  business, Adelaides.  They mission would be to extend the kingdom of God through profitable enterprise.  They raised the money to renovate the building.  Now it houses an eight room guesthouse and a day care center to 6 week-olds-5-year-olds.  They also rent out their auditorium and other meeting space for a variety of events.  When they started they also had a cafe because there weren't many lunch places in the area, but that didn't seem to take off, so they have since closed it.

The businesses are formally seperate from the church, but the board of directors is made up almost entirely of church members, so they work hand-in-hand.  It isn't an easy mission.  Just managing the businesses takes an incredible amount of time and energy.  The pastor has been a key piece in getting this started and keeping it together.  They have sown lots of seeds and come into contact with lots of people who wouldn't otherwise have contact with a church.  But they haven't had many conversions (at least that they know of) because of this venture.

The pastor was honest that this is unique and it is a hard road.  They have had to sacrifice as a congregation--time, space, being able to use their space spontaneously, and probably other things.  Personally, I would not want to do what he has done with managing a business and being a pastor, because I'm pretty sure in would be bad at it and it just wouldn't be a good fit for me. But I am thankful for the congregation at Adelaide Place Baptist.  For their creativity to try something new.  For their commitment to keep working at it and making it better.  And for their passion to serve the people in their community.  I pray that God will bless them, and that they will see the fruits of their labors.

And the guesthouse was a fun place to stay, complete with a manager who lived up to Rick Steves' description of a "quirky sense of humor." He called me the "American vicar" and was shocked to learn I didn't realize that Kim Kardashian is now pregnant by Kanye and she's still married to the other guy (basketball player?).


Map image in public domain, from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scotland_map.png

UK #3: Outreach at Saint Mary's Longfleet

 SML is a traditional parish church surrounded by a cemetery

As you may remember from my previous post, I spent time with my friend J's church in Poole.  I would say a central part of this church's current DNA is reaching out to people without a church background or a very minimal church background (maybe their parents had them baptized, but they didn't attend church).  As you probably know, there are many people in n Great Britain that fall into those categories, and there is a negative pressure on Christianity and the church.  But SML has developed ways to make connections with people in a number of ways.  

One thing I noticed was that on Sunday, they talked about sharing faith in a number of ways.  They prayed for the seeds that were planted over Christmas, and the vicar shared a conversation he had last week with a bank teller after she had come to a Christmas service with a friend.  There was a real sense that this is just part of who we are. 

They also have a number of outreach programs.  They run an Alpha course, a course that introduces Christianity and builds relationships over a meal, one semester a year.  It has been steadily growing over the past four years and last year they had about 100 people.  They are starting again in a couple of weeks and are excited to see what God does this year.  They use Alpha as a way to follow-up with people that attend their Christmas services, and they follow Alpha with more traditional small groups that basically go through the Alpha material again. 

Another thing they do is called Healing on the Streets.  They work in teams of three and go out to a public place.  They put an empty chair on the sidewalk with sign that says "healing" on it and they have similar cards to pass out to those walking by.  Then they wait to see what happens.  If people sit down in they chair, they pray for them.  They have prayed for over 400 people in the last three years. I actually saw another church doing this when I was visiting the city of Winchester on Saturday.  This program reminded me of the prayer walking I did with the team at Madison Ave. CRC in Paterson, NJ when I did an internship there.

The neighborhood around SML

There are some other things they do, but these seemed the most interesting to me.  I wonder if that's because they tend to be more overtly Christian than many of the things we do at COS.  I wouldn't give those up, but I wonder how we could build some more explicitly Christian pieces in?  Or have them available?  And how could we be more intentional about talking about what we do in the congregation, so it is something that is the part of all of our discipleship, not just the core outreach volunteers? 

I am especially wondering about some kind of prayer ministry.  I wonder what would happen if we took some chairs out into the neighborhood and offered to pray for people?  Or even if we just started prayer walking in the neighborhoods around us(including Calvin's campus), praying for the people whether we interacted with them or not?  

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: We Are Waiting

This afternoon’s prayer is inspired by a song that we are using as our prayer of illumination during Advent, “We Are Waiting” (Contemporary Songs for Worship 18, text and tune Greg Scheer).

We are waiting, waiting, waiting to hear God’s word.

We are waiting, waiting, speak we are listening Lord.

It’s Advent, and we’re waiting, God.

I am waiting, God.  Waiting to see what will happen in my life.  Waiting to see where you will lead me.  Waiting.

My parishioners are waiting, God.  Waiting for their families to be able to join them in the U.S.  Waiting to see what you have for their lives.  Waiting.

My friends are waiting, God.  Waiting for graduations, babies, and proposals.  Waiting to see how you will guide them.  Waiting.

We are waiting, God.  Waiting for you to return and make all things new.  Waiting to hear the trumpets of your arrival.  Waiting.

Maranatha.  Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Photo by Li'l Wolf, http://www.flickr.com/photos/schneelocke/2201266557/, 22 December 2012.  Used under a Creative Commons License.

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: Let Your Kingdom Come

This is a prayer we have been using in our evening worship services.  Each time I have prayed it, it has seemed so right, so what the church ought to be.

Reshape us, good Lord,

Until in generosity,

Faith and full expectation,

We are truly Christ-like.

Make us passionate followers of Jesus

Rather than passive supporters.

Make our churches places of

Radical discipleship

And signposts to heaven,

Then, in us, through us,

And, if need be, despite us,

Let your kingdom come.

Amen.

The prayer is from “Evening Liturgy E” in A Wee Worship Book by Wild Goose Worship Group, 1999.

Image by edgeplot, http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgeplot/208618609/, December 1, 2012.  Used under a Creative Commons License.