November 29 devotion

Learning to Listen and to Ignore 

 

Bible Excerpt from Matthew 24:15-31


Then if anyone says to you, "Look! Here is the Messiah!" or "There he is!"--do not believe it.



Reflection by Maren Tirabassi



Two days ago was Thanksgiving. Yesterday was that morning when some of us, in spite of a shuddering economy, awakened early and stood in line for holiday gift sales. 

Tomorrow begins Advent and many of us will sing, "O Come O Come, Emmanuel."  Today is Advent Eve, that eye of the hurricane between seasons, a moment to choose how we will spend the next four weeks and what kind of a Messiah we will be awaiting. 



The warning in Matthew 24 is addressed to people in a desperate and dangerous situation. We experience some desperate situations ourselves.  Friends and relatives in war zones, crashing destruction of personal security, health crises, family disasters, layoffs and unemployment--even the cultural stresses and expectations of Christmas--feel like chaos. 

During chaos times, it is so easy to grasp for what Jesus calls false messiahs and false prophets.  Some of them have names--"perfect gift" or "vodka bottle," "too-busy-to-think," "credit card," "depression," "do-it-all," "photo-card family."  

There may be no month more populated by look-at-this false messiahs, but all the jarring, jangling, jostling, frenzy-crying of a crazy world hungry for love and lonely for peace cannot noise away, cannot, haste away, cannot ache away the real One.



Prayer



Emmanuel, God coming and God with us, help us to be discriminating Advent people and lead us to care for the desperate house-lives we find all around us. Amen.


 

About the Author



Maren C. Tirabassi is Pastor of Union Congregational UCC of Madbury, NH.  Her most recent book is God in My Life: How and Why We Share Faith Stories.




November 27 devotion

 

November 27, 2008
by Rev. Steven Horelica
Assistant to Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson at Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas, TX

Then one of the lepers, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. Luke 17:15

The assigned Gospel lesson for Thanksgiving Day is the story in which Jesus encounters and heals 10 lepers on his way to Jerusalem. (Luke 17:11-19)  The lepers approach Jesus, keeping their distance as they were socially required to do.  From a distance they ask Jesus to have mercy on them.

In response, Jesus says, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." (This is because the priests would have to declare them clean).  On their way to see the priest, they are made clean.  One of them, a Samaritan, seeing that he was made clean, turns around and goes back to Jesus so that he can give thanks and praise God for his healing.  Jesus asks the man where the other nine are.  He tells the man to go on his way, saying, "Your faith has made you well."

Could there be a difference in being made clean and being made well?  Maybe being made well requires us to do something.
I like to think that I would be the one who went back to give thanks and praise God for my healing.  But then again, I can understand how the other nine got so caught up in the busy-ness of life and their excitement of being made clean that taking time to give thanks was overlooked.

 

Today, many of us will sit down with family and friends to share a meal.  We will eat, watch football, and eat some more.  Some of us will be so busy this day making sure that the turkey isn't too dry, that Aunt Mary doesn't sit next to Aunt Martha, or that the children have lots of things to do outside of the house that we easily could forget to take a few moments to thank God for something in our life.

One of the families of a church I served while attending seminary invited me over for Thanksgiving one year. After we all had sat down at the table to eat, one of them said that it had become custom for each person to share one thing for which they are thankful before praying and eating.  It was a great reminder of the original intent of this day.

Sometime today, in the all the hustle and bustle of being with family and friends, I invite you to find time to stop and give thanks to God for something or someone in your life.  It can be shared aloud with others or just a quiet prayer to God.  May living out our faith in thanksgiving and praise to God make us all "well."

Loving God, thank you for all the ways in which I am blessed. Amen.

November 25 devotion

The Final Verdict

 

Bible Excerpt from Revelation 19:1-2


After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our God, for his judgments are true and just.



Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel



In the world today, there are so many issues of truth and justice that are yet to be resolved.  The blood of martyrs and freedom fighters cries out from the ground while malicious violence advances without much reprisal. 

Roosevelt's "New Deal," Johnson's "Great Society" and King's "Beloved Community" have all been abandoned by the dominant culture in the pursuit of rampant greed and obsessive materialism. 

Poverty, hunger and disease envelop the globe while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 

Racism refuses to die; militarism surpasses diplomacy; sexism and hetero-sexism continue to divide us; the environment is imperiled--all of these issues of truth and justice hang in the balance. 

But the great hope of the Christian faith is that these issues will not forever be denied or unresolved.  God will rectify every wrong, adjudicate every controversy, and establish a reign of love, peace and justice for all. Hallelujah!



Prayer



Lord God, we thank you for the revelation of a better world--a world in which everyone is loved, valued and cared for as an expression of your majesty. Inspire us now to begin to bring that world into being by our commitment to truth and justice. Amen.


 

About the Author



Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, United Church of Christ, Stone Mountain, Georgia, and the author of Solomon's Success: Four Essential Keys to Leadership.



 

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November 22 devotion

Church as Family



 Bible Excerpt from Matthew 12:46-50


Jesus replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" and pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." 



Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson



In my work with congregations I often hear people speak of their church as a "family."  "We're like a family." They may even say, "This church is my family." 

It's the kind of thing that sounds great, but lately I've begun to wonder if it really is.

  

Too often church-as-family congregations seem pretty inwardly focused and difficult to break into.  Somehow, the large transformative purposes of the church, like hearing and doing the will of God, seem to have been eclipsed by ensuring the comfort and satisfaction of the congregation's members. 

Moreover, keeping folks happy seems to have replaced the higher calling of transforming both individuals and society to be more Christ-like.

 

Our purpose as the church isn't the comfort and satisfaction of members or being a happy family.  It is hearing and doing God's will, and in doing so becoming a whole new kind of family, one that is salt to the earth and light to the world.



Prayer

 

For your disturbing word, Lord Jesus, we are grateful. May it disturb us to life. Amen.


 

About the Author



Anthony B. Robinson, UCC pastor, speaker and author, teaches leadership at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. His newest book is Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations.


November 21 devotion

In the Ups and Downs, God Levels Things Out

 

Bible Excerpt from Isaiah 40:1-11


A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain." 



Reflection by Lillian Daniel



People who are facing a serious illness tell me they have a new respect for how changeable life is.  Suddenly, they realize how precious the ordinary moments are.  One man once told me what many others have said in different words: "I used to complain about being bored. But I could use a little boring right now."



These words from Isaiah seem to predict the divine future God wants for us. God does not want us laboring up steep mountains one minute and down in a ditch the next minute. God wants to level things out.

 But life on earth doesn't work that way. Life delivers wild fluctuations in the stock market, our love lives, our health and even our sanity. The ground we travel is uneven and rough. 



It is God's grace, working through the passage of time, which evens out the terrain. We look back in hindsight and don't just see a lot of ups and downs.  As we learn from our mistakes and our heartbreaks, some of those past mountains get laid low.

 It's good preparation for the real moment of understanding, when we meet Jesus in the afterlife and finally understand that all this was just the prelude. 

Until then, let's hold on to the image of God watching us in our ups and downs, and using grace and mercy to turn the rough places into a fertile plain. 



Prayer

  When my heart is a desert, make straight a highway through me, and remind me that one day every mountain I am climbing will be made low and every valley will be lifted up. Eventually. Amen. 


 

About the Author



Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois and the author of  "Tell it Like it is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony.

November 20 devotion

Are You Saved?

 

Bible Excerpt from Psalm 100


We are God's people and the sheep of God's pasture.



Reflection by Ron Buford



I grew up believing in "salvation theology" -- every sin put you in danger of hell.  When asked, "Are you saved?" I always wondered.



When I joined the United Church of Christ, my sainted mother, whom we affectionately called "Queen Dorothy" behind her back, said, "You won't hear anything over there about salvation." 



Years after mom passed away, I heard Dr. David Greenhaw, president of Eden Seminary, begin a sermon, "Tonight, I am going to preach about salvation."  I was shocked!



Dr. Greenhaw said the "just" live by faith in Jesus, and that is enough by itself.  He called it God's safe pasture.

I caught a glimpse of faith strong enough to catch us when we fall, wide enough to embrace us when we wander, loving enough to lure us back when we run from what is good.



We confess sin, not to escape hell, but naturally, whenever we think of God's unconditional love.  We strive to turn from all that hurts ourselves, each other, and the world around us. 

God's love mystically and repeatedly transforms us.



I closed my eyes that night and whispered to Queen Dorothy, "Well, Momma, for the first time . . . I know I'm saved!"



Prayer



Gracious God, Thank you for saving me . . . completely, and without condition.  Help me believe it for myself, for all who have sinned against me in the past, and all who will sin against me this day. Amen.


ANNOUNCEMENT: Potluck and Hanging of the Greens - November 30, 2008

Potluck and Hanging of the Greens – November 30, 2008

 

Theme "Build your on sandwich"

 

Items Needed":

 

Variety of Sliced Meats and Cheese – GOGUCC will furnish

 

Regular White Bread - Christine Walker

Pumpernickel Bread - The Grello's

                Rye Bread – Seeded or Unseeded

 Lettuce – Romaine

Tomatoes – Sliced - Pastor Andy

Onions – Sliced

Green Bell Peppers – Shredded

Black Olives – Sliced

Pickled Banana Peppers Slices

Pickles - Jana Dehoff

 Mayo - The Grello's

 Chips

 Cookies - Lenore Stackhouse/Jeff Birdwell

Cakes

Dessert - The Grello's

Sweet Tea

Unsweetened Tea - Carol and Joy Smith-Dailey

Soda's

 Plates

Napkins - Carol and Joy Smith-Dailey

Forks

Cups

 

Please email or call Joe Matthews at jmatthewssc@bellsouth.net or803-351-3001

 

Thanks!

 

Joe Matthews

 

Garden of Grace United Church of Christ
1020 Atlas Rd., Columbia, SC 29209
http://www.gogucc.com
"No Matter Who You Are, Or Where You Are On Life's Journey, You Are Welcome Here."

RE: Peaceful Protest at the SC State House - Stand up against California's Gay Marriage Ban

Sorry folks, can't make this -- will be in Atlanta -- leaving tonight and will be there all day Saturday.

Blessings on whatever you do.

Andy

Protest Proposition 8 in Columbia

Stand up against California's Gay Marriage Ban

This Saturday, November 15th, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and straight Americans across the country will meet in their respective cities at 1:30 PM to protest California's Proposition 8, which has banned gay marriage in the state.

This ballot initiative, along with an anti-gay marriage amendment that passed in Florida and a law in Arkansas that banned gay adoption, are the result of bigotry and are deliberately discriminatory. 

We must stand in solidarity with GLBT people across the country and show the world that we will not accept second-class status! Marriage is a civil right, and we must fight to overturn this proposition now!

This protest will be peaceful and low-key. Please bring signs if you want to, and most importantly, bring your friends. We will meet on the sidewalk in front of the state house at 1:30 and stand in quiet protest until around 3.

Hope to see you there!

Event Info

Host: SC Progressive Network, SC Pride Movement

Type: Causes - Protest

Network: Global

Time and Place

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location: SC State House

Street: Gervais and Main

City/Town: Columbia, SC

Contact Info

Phone: 4783358927

Email: B_SHEROUSE@YAHOO.COM

Garden of Grace United Church of Christ
1020 Atlas Rd., Columbia, SC 29209
http://www.gogucc.com
"No Matter Who You Are, Or Where You Are On Life's Journey, You Are Welcome Here."

Peaceful Protest at the SC State House - Stand up against California's Gay Marriage Ban

Protest Proposition 8 in Columbia

Stand up against California's Gay Marriage Ban

This Saturday, November 15th, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and straight Americans across the country will meet in their respective cities at 1:30 PM to protest California's Proposition 8, which has banned gay marriage in the state.

This ballot initiative, along with an anti-gay marriage amendment that passed in Florida and a law in Arkansas that banned gay adoption, are the result of bigotry and are deliberately discriminatory. 

We must stand in solidarity with GLBT people across the country and show the world that we will not accept second-class status! Marriage is a civil right, and we must fight to overturn this proposition now!

This protest will be peaceful and low-key. Please bring signs if you want to, and most importantly, bring your friends. We will meet on the sidewalk in front of the state house at 1:30 and stand in quiet protest until around 3.

Hope to see you there!

Event Info

Host: SC Progressive Network, SC Pride Movement

Type: Causes - Protest

Network: Global

Time and Place

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location: SC State House

Street: Gervais and Main

City/Town: Columbia, SC

Contact Info

Phone: 4783358927

Email: B_SHEROUSE@YAHOO.COM

Garden of Grace United Church of Christ
1020 Atlas Rd., Columbia, SC 29209
http://www.gogucc.com
"No Matter Who You Are, Or Where You Are On Life's Journey, You Are Welcome Here."

Bulletproof Faith -- a must read!

Hi all,

"Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian
Christians" was released by Jossey-Bass back in September. Since then,
I've been busy promoting the book - sending out press releases,
talking with media, doing book signings and traveling to churches
teaching workshops and preaching.

Despite all this travel, talking, and teaching - word about the book
is spreading slowly. Too slowly!

I'm not bragging when I say this is an important book for our
community. Instead, I have been humbled time and again when people who
have read the book have called it things like "profound" and
"amazing." Our community has been so battered by attacks from the
religious right - and especially during the recent battles over
same-sex marriage in places like California. There, the Mormon Church
bankrolled nearly half of the funds raised to pass Proposition 8,
stripping gay and lesbian people of the right to marry. Our community
desperately needs a book like "Bulletproof Faith" right now as
religious institutions target us.

So many of our LGBT brothers and sisters turn their backs on God
because they believe the pernicious lie that God hates us and wants us
to "change" to become acceptable to God. "Bulletproof Faith" gives
LGBT people another alternative - a way to keep their faith and use
the attacks against our community to strengthen their faith and bring
them closer to God.

If you believe it is important to help LGBT people keep their faith in
the face of vicious attacks from both church and society - then I am
asking you to help me promote "Bulletproof Faith." I need some
evangelists who will take up this book as their "cause." I need
evangelists who fully believe that no LGBT person should feel that God
hates them. I need evangelists who fully believe that LGBT people are
of sacred worth to God and need to hear about God's unconditional love
for them. I need evangelists who feel their hearts break whenever
their fellow brothers and sisters walk away from God.

Will you be an evangelist for "Bulletproof Faith"? If so, here are
some things you can do:

- Post a blurb or press release on any email lists you are on (both
the blurb and press release are included at the bottom of this email)

- Send the blurb or press release to friends who may be interested in
the book

- If you've read the book, review it on Amazon.com (that's especially
helpful if you liked the book!) Go here to review it:
http://tinyurl.com/6n2h7s

- Join the "Bulletproof Faith" fan page on Facebook and invite others
to do so. Here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/5lc96u

- Join the mailing list at http://www.bulletproofbook.com and invite
others to do so (just enter your email in the box on the front page of
the Web site)

- Form a book club in your church or other social group to study
Bulletproof Faith. (A free 25 page study guide is available at
http://bulletproofbook.com/study-guide/)

- Talk to your pastor or board about hosting me for a workshop. Two
churches - MCC Knoxville in Tennessee and Grace Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Houston, Texas - have already done this with great success!

- If you have a blog, write a blog post about the book

- Invite me to guest blog on your blog (Reconciling Ministries Network
has already done this! Thanks!)

- Interview me for a post on your blog

- If you have any connections with the media - newspapers, TV, radio,
Internet media, freelance writers/reporter, etc. - please put me in
contact with them.

- If you work in the media in any capacity, please let me know. I
always need more contacts.

- If you haven't already done so - buy the book! Buy several for your
friends and family for Christmas! Here's a link to buy the book:
http://tinyurl.com/6kpcnt

Thanks, in advance, for all you help!

Here is a blurb you can use to promote the book:

"Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian
Christians" by Candace Chellew-Hodge is a thoughtful, practical guide
shows readers a way through the minefield of condemnation and
persecution faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
Christians and helps foster a faith that is bulletproof - impervious
to attacks, yet loving and savvy in its approach. "Bulletproof Faith"
is filled with useful insights and proven spiritual practices that
deflect attacks and enhance and strengthen faith by turning attacks
into opportunities for spiritual growth.

About the Author: Candace Chellew-Hodge is a United Church of Christ
minister and founder of the online magazine Whosoever for GLBT
Christians at whosoever.org. She is an award-winning former television
and radio journalist as a news writer, reporter, and editor with CNN.
For a free study guide and more resources for this book visit
www.bulletproofbook.com.

Here is a longer press release:

New Book Promises "Bulletproof Faith" for Gays and Lesbians Facing
Religious Attacks

A refrain heard relentlessly by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
people of faith is: "God hates fags!" Whether it's hurled as a direct
insult or stated more subtly in a "Love the sinner, hate the sin"
theology, the message to GLBT ears is the same: "God hates you and so
do we!"

"Gay and lesbian people are constantly under attack," said Candace
Chellew-Hodge, the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival
Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians. "We're unable to marry the
person we love, and many support writing that discrimination into the
U.S. Constitution. Churches continue to argue about our lives and many
insist we must become something called, 'ex-gay.' We're tired of
constantly being a target."

This trend against LGBT people isn't abating. Religious groups from
around the nation used their considerable wealth to target the LGBT
community by writing marriage discrimination into the state
constitutions of California, Arizona and Florida in the last election.
This sent the message that it's "gays vs. God" and that gay and
lesbian people are disdained by God.

Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu noted in his endorsement of the book
that, "Gay and lesbian Christians are constantly demoralized and told
they are not children of God. Bulletproof Faith reassures gays and
lesbians that God loves them just as they were created and teaches
them how to stand strong, with compassion and gentleness, against
those who condemn them."

Bulletproof Faith, published by Jossey-Bass, helps readers reclaim the
spiritual self that criticism from society and religion has led them
to give up. Instead of arguing over biblical texts, Bulletproof Faith
helps LGBT people live authentically into their faith despite
criticism. Using examples from such diverse sources as Xena: Warrior
Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bulletproof Faith empowers
readers to withstand even the most aggressive assaults without fear,
doubt, or anger by providing:

- Solid, proven tactics that can be used successfully when faced with
an attack

- Practical tools to discover one's "authentic self": the bulletproof
part of each of us

- Guidance on how to turn attacks into opportunities for spiritual growth

Bulletproof Faith doesn't argue; instead Chellew-Hodge's approach -
born out of 12 years of being on the frontlines in the controversies
surrounding gay and Christian identity - teaches readers to draw on
their own inner strength and to return abuse with the spiritual Aikido
of gentleness, compassion, reverence - and strength.

About the Author: Candace Chellew-Hodge is the associate pastor at
Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, SC and founder of
the online magazine for GLBT Christians called Whosoever at
http://www.whosoever.org, which reaches nearly 1 million people a
year. She is an award-winning former journalist with 25 years of
experience including six years as a news writer, reporter and editor
with CNN. She is a graduate of the Candler School of Theology at Emory
University in Atlanta.

For more information and a free 25-page study guide for Bulletproof
Faith, visit http://www.bulletproofbook.com

Contact:
Erin Lane Beam
Publicist, Religion and General Interest
Jossey-Bass/Wiley
989 Market St., 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
(p) 415-782-3213
(f) 415-433-4151
(e) ebeam@wiley.com
Candace Chellew-Hodge
candace@bulletproofbook.com
ISBN: 978-0-470-27928-1

November 12 devotion

 

Just Words?



 Bible Excerpt from Matthew 24:29-35


Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.



Reflection by David Schoen



Just words!  During this fall's election season, words were often derided, critiqued and denounced as "just words"--words spoken for political gain with no relation to action, conviction or reality. 

This makes the word for "word" in the Bible rather fascinating. In the Hebraic language of the Bible, "word" also means "act" or "work."  

Unlike most political rhetoric, there is no distance or distinction between word and deed in God's speech. 

The Bible begins with God saying, "Let there be light," and there was light. God's word is backed by God's deeds and work.

Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." 

We face the future, knowing that Jesus' words of a new day are more than "just words."



Prayer 

In the midst of all the words that engulf my life, help me listen for and follow your still speaking, still working word in my day ahead. 


 

About the Author



David Schoen is Minister and Team Leader, Congregational Vitality Ministries, Local Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, Cleveland, Ohio.


November 6 devotion

By Rev. Dr. Rusty Baldridge, Curate & Associate Pastor for Community Outreach & Benevolence at the Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas, TX

Let God Do the Multiplying!

"God is for you, not against you!"  That may seem terribly obvious, but consider how many people seem to have gotten the message that God is not for them.  I talk to people every week for which religion has somehow given them the idea that God is against them.  They actually think God wants to punish, judge and reject them!                                      

 

But be sure of this one thing; you were created by God to be happy, successful and filled with a deep sense of joy.  If your god doesn't want you to win, if the god you worship does not want you happy and fulfilled, if the god you know does not want greatness from you, I'd like to suggest that this is the wrong god to be Involved with.  

I want you to know today that such a god is too small and not the God of the Bible!  There is a bigger God available to you, a God who says to you:

"Seek and you shall find … ask and you shall receive… knock and it shall be opened to you!"

Here's the thing; take whatever you have in the way of seed faith and put that into action!
 Jesus said "If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed nothing shall be Impossible for you!"

The place where most of us have difficulty is that we assume we need great giant faith before we can get on mountain-moving terms with God.  It was not the great and the mighty Jesus said these things to.  It was the common folk of the rank and file.   It was people like you and me with our little mustard seeds and a willingness to trust God.   

It is God's responsibility to do the multiplying.  Don't try to have more faith, give what little you have to the God and let the multiplying begin.

Oh God of Faith may my day be peaceful and blessed and may others see you through me. Amen.

November 5 devotion



Abundance or Scarcity?

 

Bible Excerpt from Psalm 128



Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around the table.



Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver



So much of our scripture is a celebration of abundance.  The first chapters of Genesis are a song of praise for God's generosity.  With each act of creation, the divine refrain is, "It is good, it is good, it is very good."  And it pictures the Creator saying, "Be fruitful and multiply." 

It is what Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggeman calls, "an orgy of fruitfulness."

  Many of the Psalms, including the one for today, survey creation and catalogue this abundance in loving detail and with joyful thanksgiving.

 

Then, in the Gospels, Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes so that there is more than enough for everyone.  At a wedding feast he turns water into wine, and more wine than could be consumed at a dozen weddings. 

These highly symbolic stories speak of God's abundance.  There is enough, there is more than enough.

  That's the biblical narrative.  But the narrative by which we are tempted to live is another story entirely, a story of scarcity, where there is never enough.  

In fact, we are tempted to define enough as, "always something more than I have now."  

In spite of all that has happened in recent months, we still live in the most prosperous country in the history of the world.

  Do you live out of a sense of abundance or scarcity?   That may be an economic question, but certainly it is a faith question.



Prayer

  O God, when I count your blessings, they are numberless as the sands, so I confess that I don't always get very far with my counting.   So I simply thank you for sharing your abundance with me. Amen.


 

About the Author

  Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the author of To Begin at the Beginning: An Introduction to the Christian Faith.

November 3 devotion

By Rev. Dawson B. Taylor
Curate / Associate Pastor for Congregational Life at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, TX

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, 'Do not fear, only believe.' Mark 5:36

I bet you're like me. I hate spam messages in my email. It seems that I am under constant attack with messages about getting medicines without a prescription, to find the woman of my dreams (yea right) or to enlarge all kinds of things on my body. I get them at home and at work and I grow so tired of wading through what seems to be an endless supply. Regardless of how high I set my spam filters there are always messages coming at me no matter the day or hour.

 

Recently I began to think about how much like life that is. No matter how faithful I try to be, no matter how much I try to wade through the messages of fear all around me, often I seem to end up more fearful than faithful. 

There are constantly messages coming at us that our economy will fail, or that we are unworthy of God's love or that as liberal Christians, we don't understand scripture. There are fear-mongers all around us and it seems that no matter how high I set my spiritual filter, their messages of doubt and despair always get through. 

I believe the same thing happens with our fears about generosity. We worry that we won't have enough and that somehow hording money and possessions will give us the faith that we lack.

In this time of exploring the stewardship responsibilities that we each share as a part of this faith community, my hope and my prayer is that each of us will choose faith over fear. Today as the messages of fear seem to attack you, choose faith, it wins every time.

Loving God, help me to be faithful, not fearful. Amen

 

November 2 devotion

Letting Go in Order to Have



 Bible Excerpt from Matthew 23:13-287 


Woe . . .to you . . . for you lock people out of . . . heaven . . . and when others are going in, you stop them. 



Reflection by Donna Schaper



The unique idea in Christianity is that heaven is on earth.  Heaven is not above earth or over earth or opposite earth but ON earth.



As the economic crisis deepens and we find ourselves unraveling, it will be very important to get a hold of our metaphors. Later is now. Heaven is earth. Spirit is body. There are no separations here--only those that our minds create.



Many of us are still living in the idea of growth as being heavenly. The truth is that we have peaked population and peaked oil. The average human being needs four acres for food and bodily support. The average American uses 24. Whenever we use more, we are taking food from others, particularly the unborn.

Others like the idea of sustainability, but it is often the bargaining position of one who says to God, OK, I won't take any more, but could I hang on to what I have? 

That bargain means woe for the world's people as well.

There is a third option, that of regeneration, of dying enough to live. Of letting go in order to have. Of really changing, from our metaphors on up to our behavior. Letting go of this world and its way means we open ourselves to the new. Otherwise woe is woe and it is ours.



Prayer

Help us, O God, to see heaven on earth. Amen.


 

About the Author

Donna Schaper is Senior Minister, Judson Memorial Church, New York, New York, and the author of Living Well While Doing Good.