Contents:
June 25, 2006
The heart of Christian
ministry is Christ’s ministry of outreaching love. Christian ministry is
the expression of the mind and mission of Christ by a community of Christians
that demonstrates a common life of gratitude and devotion, witness and service,
celebration and discipleship. All Christians are called through their
baptism to this ministry of servanthood in the world to the glory of God and for
human fulfillment. The forms of this ministry are diverse in locale, in
interest, and in denominational accent, yet always catholic in spirit and
outreach.
“Ministry of All Christians,” Book of Discipline, UMC
If I could talk to
each youngster . . . I would have one message to give them. I would
say, “You are important to the world. You are needed. Most of
all, you can make a difference in someone else’s life. Begin by doing
something that shows you care. That’s where satisfaction in life
begins. And if one day you get a feeling that says you can change the
world, trust that feeling. Because you make a difference. There
is something important that needs to happen in the world because of you, and
it can happen if you do it.”
During my seventeen
years as Referee of the San Francisco Juvenile Court, I saw hundreds of
young people who refused to be buried.
Mary Conway
Kohler
I hope that what I am sharing this
morning will spark images of how we, unlike David, might tame the mighty
giant rather than kill him. Killing enemies is, after all, a very
patriarchal way of handling conflict. . . . Re-imagining of the drama of
David and Goliath might present it as a story of taming – of befriending and
disarming – the giant. You and I are called to participate in taming
giants, in healing and liberating the world around us and within us.
Carter Heyward
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“State
of Black America’s Covenant”
1) Securing the right to health care
and well-being;
2) Establishing a system of public
education in which all children achieve at high levels and reach their full
potential;
3) Correcting the system of unequal
justice;
4) Fostering accountable
community-centered policing;
5) Ensuring broad access to affordable
neighborhoods that connect to opportunity;
6) Claiming our democracy;
7) Strengthening our rural roots;
8) Accessing good jobs, wealth and
economic prosperity;
9) Assuring environmental justice for
all;
10) Closing the racial digital divide.
Tavis
Smiley, edt., The Covenant with Black America
www.covenantwithblackamerica.com
An idea is at the core of all movements. The
days of the Rosa parks and Martin Luther Kings may no longer be here,
but the power of an idea always generates such beings. A movement
is a sort of university for new leaders.
Barbara Arnwine, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Over time, as slavery
gradually was abolished, a systematic network of attitudes and practices
based on the concept of race evolved across all fields and activities of New
World societies with a uniquely pervasive, saturating force. . . .
The majority must decide
to diminish significant measures of power and privilege if lasting
transformations of self and society are to occur. There have always
been open doors of sorts for minorities (emancipation, emigration,
education, economic success in sports or business, passing as white).
What’s missing is an unambiguous, abiding determination declared in public
and private by a majority of the majority to surrender privileges that are
the living legacy of slavery. Begin now. Today. Give up walls,
doors, keys, the dungeons, the booty, the immunity, the false identity
apartheid preserves.
A first step is
acknowledging that the dangerous lies of slavery continue to be told as long
as we conceive of ourselves in terms of race, as black or white. . . .
John Edgar Wideman
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O Light! / Divine and one Holy Trinity, /
we, born of the earth,
glorify you always / together with the
heavenly hosts.
At the raising of the morning light / shine
forth upon our souls
your intelligible light.
Armenian Sunrise Service
God is far off, unapproachable, /
mysterious, uncontrollable;
and yet, amazingly, / this same
unapproachable / and mysterious God
draws near and / touches us. . . . These
two, / the beyondness and
the nearness, are always / held together
in tension.
Edmund Steimle
In mystery and grandeur / we see the face of
God
in earthiness and the ordinary / we know the
love of Christ.
In heights and depths / and life and death:
the spirit of God / is moving among us.
Let us praise God.
I will light a light / in the name of God
who lit the world / and breathed the breath
of life into me.
I will light a light / in the name of the
Son
who saved the world / and stretched out his
hand to me.
I will light a light / in the name of the
Spirit
who encompasses the world / and blesses my
soul with yearning.
We will light three lights / for the trinity
of love:
God above us, / God beside us, / God beneath
us:
the beginning, the end, the everlasting one.
In
Spirit and in Truth
Today is Trinity Sunday in the
Christian Year and Peace with Justice Sunday on the UMC program calendar.
These two belong together as long as we focus primarily on the worship and
teaching of the triune God who calls us into Eternal Community of love,
justice, and peace with Godself both here and now and in the age to come.
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The flames of the Spirit burst the confines
of the upper room where the disciples gathered. Fired by that
presence, they went into the wide world . . . The Festival of
Pentecost celebrates the birth of the church. The Holy Spirit came
upon the faithful disciples of Jesus to inspire and energize them.
They told the story of what God had done for them in Jesus; they preached,
they baptized, they healed, the formed communities, they invited the world
to join them. The spread of the early church throughout the
Mediterranean regions in the generations following
Jesus astonished the world . . .
The season following Pentecost is known in
some traditions as “ordinary time,” when green signifies the church’s
continuing work. Discipleship is explored in all of its
manifestations: to go by faith, not sight; to dance with joy in the presence
of God; to test the limits of a sacred boundary and explore the meaning of
the Sabbath. The church tells the story, preaching, baptizing, and
healing in Jesus’ name. We seek to encounter the passionate flames of
the Spirit of Christ where they are to be found in the world: sometimes by
comfortable hearths, rarely in burning bushes, often on the street around a
makeshift fire. We search for the encounter wherever people gather in
Jesus’ name to seek the warmth and light of a community fostering justice
and love. Red is the color given the Festival of Pentecost: the red of
the Spirit’s flames warming, illuminating, fueling the work of the church of
Christ in the world.
The Spirit is called both
“Sanctifier” and “Sustainer.” We are sanctified by the waters of
baptism; we are sustained by the bread and the cup of communion. The
gifts and graces of the Spirit of God in Christ, the Spirit of Life in Love,
are both for discernment and for distribution. We spend the “summer
season” of the Spirit discerning, the “fall season” distributing –
economically, ecologically, ecumenically.
When the day of Pentecost had come they
were all together in one place and all of the many foreigners heard the
witnesses speaking in their own tongue.
Come, Holy Spirit, witness to us also
in our several languages.
Speak in the language of our need.
Let us hear how our deepest hungers, desires and aspirations can be
fulfilled by your goodness and in your service.
Come, Holy Spirit, give us that good
news again.
Speak in the language of our fear.
Let us hear how our worries about the future, and about each other, and
about ourselves, can best find rest in your providential care.
Come, Holy Spirit, give us that
encouraging news again . . . .
Speak in the language of our gratitude.
Let us hear how our honest thanks relate us, not only to those with whom we
live, but also to you, the Lord and Giver of life.
Come, Holy Spirit, give us that
enlarging news again . . . .
Speak to us in the language of hope.
Let us hear how our yearning and our expectations are not just wishful
thinking, but responses to your promise.
Come, Holy Spirit, give us that good
news again . . . .
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“Foolish
Notion,” Holly Near
WHY DO WE KILL PEOPLE WHO ARE KILLING PEOPLE
TO SHOW THAT KILLING PEOPLE IS WRONG?
WHAT A FOOLISH NOTION, THAT WAR IS CALLED DEVOTION
WHEN THE GREATEST WARRIORS / ARE THE ONES WHO STAND FOR PEACE
War toys are growing stronger / The problem stays the same
The young ones join the army / While General
What’s-His-Name
Is feeling full of pride / That the army will provide
But he does not ask himself (CHORUS)
Death row is growing longer / The problem stays the same
The poor ones get thrown in prison / While Warden What’s-His-Name
Is feeling justified / But when will the law be tried
For never asking (CHORUS)
CHILDREN ARE SO TENDER. / THEY WILL CROSS THE EARTH
IF THEY THINK THEY ARE SAVING A FRIEND. / THEY GET DRAWN IN BY
PATRIOTIC LIES, RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES, THEY LEAVE OUR HOMES
AND THEN THEY FIND OUT ONCE THEY’RE ALL ALONE.
THEY KEEP ASKING THE AGE OLD QUESTION (CHORUS)
Muhammad Ali, Susan
B. Anthony, James Baldwin, Wendell Berry, Cesar Chavez, Shirley Chisholm,
William Sloane Coffin, Ossie Davis, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois,
Marian Wright Edelman, Dwight Eisenhower, Ralph Ellison, Amy Goodman, Fannie
Lou Hamer, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Chief Joseph, Helen Keller,
Jonathan Kozol, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothea Lange, Lewis Lapham,
Arthur Miller, Bill Moyers, Rosa Parks, Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Frank Serpico, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman,
Judy Wicks, Malcolm X, Howard Zinn . . . .
from
“Americans Who tell the Truth,” A Collection of Portraits and Quotes, by
artist
Robert
Shetterly, who writes –
We get pre-emptive war instead of pre-emptive planning for a
sustainable future. The greatness of our country is being tested and
will be measured not by its military might but by its restraint, compassion,
and wisdom. DeToqueville said, “America is great because it is good.
When it ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” A democracy, whose
leaders and media do not try to tell the people the truth, is a democracy in
name only. If the consent of the voters is gained through fear and
lies, America is neither good nor great. Nor is it America.
(www.americanswhotellthetruth.org)
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. . . the horizon is still quite dark, / but
hope is about to dawn.
The seed of salvation is sprouting, / as
earth makes ready.
What about the roots of our hearts? . . .
(Pierre Talec)
It is crucial to be rooted / in someone,
if not somewhere.
Pilgrim people on the move / root in
relationships.
I am the vine, said Jesus, / extending
himself through time and space
to graft us as a branch. / To claim that
continuity
we must submit to pruning, / sinking
ourselves unconditionally
into the will of him in whom / we live
and move and are.
(Miriam Therese
Winter)
And from what source, / O tree -- / since of
yourself you are dead and barren –
do you get these fruits of life? / From the
tree of life –
for unless you are engrafted into him / you
would have no power
to produce any fruit at all, / because you
are nothing. (Catherine of Siena)
“Tree”
Look at me, Lord; / with my arms spread
out, / my hands open,
and my heart filled with goodness,/ I am
like a tree!
And I am even bigger / than the tree
there in the wood:
because, Lord, I bear fruit in all
seasons, / even in winter,
when skies are grey / and cold seizes the
earth and its people
/ in an icy grip.
Look at me, Lord, I am like a tree, / and
I say to everyone I meet,
Come and eat the fruit of my tree! / Come
and share my smile
if sadness has brought you down! / Come
and taste my forgiveness
if malice has enveloped you! / Come and
pick my friendship
if fear has seized you! Come and
taste my joy
if misfortune has wounded you! / Come to
my tree and help yourself!
Look at me, Lord: / just as you asked, /
I am a tree which bears good fruit.
(Charles Singer)
So through you who are life / we will
produce the fruit of life
if we choose to engraft ourselves into you.
(Catherine of Siena)
Christ, you are stem, stalk, tree! / Let
your fruit take root in me.
(Miriam Therese
Winter)
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Beauty
Beauty is startling. She
wears a gold shawl in the summer and sells seven kinds of honey at the flea
market. She is young and old at once, my daughter and my grandmother.
In school she excelled in mathematics and poetry. Beauty doesn’t anger
easily, but she was annoyed with the journalist who kept asking her about
her favorites – as if she could have one favorite color or one favorite
flower. She does not mind questions though, and she is fond of
riddles. Beauty will dance with anyone who is brave enough to ask her.
J. Ruth
Gendler
Bearing Love’s Power
It
is usually not too difficult to overlook the faults of those I love.
At the same time, there are occasions when, in the daily grind, I find
myself chafing at the annoying idiosyncrasies of those nearest and dearest
to me. Isn’t the challenge to love my neighbor who is near merely a
microcosm of the gospel’s universal call to love, forgiveness, and
compassion?
We all long to do something
about the conflicts that devastate the world. Can this be a way for us? We
are one, and the challenge for us is to realize our unity and our
connectedness, to realize that everything we do affects the entire world.
Our moves to understand, to forgive, to be compassionate toward others who
annoy us can mobilize to mercy a soldier who is thousands of miles away.
These moves can inspire mediation among world leaders. At any moment we can
pour into the world either love energy or hate energy. We can build or we
can destroy. We are born of God’s love, and we bear the power of that love.
From God
in Ordinary Time:
Carmelite Reflections on Everyday Life
How might your life have been
different, if, deep within, you carried an image of the Great Mother?
And, when things seemed very, very bad, you could imagine that you were
sitting in the (her) Lap…
Held tightly …
Embraced, at last
And, that you could hear Her saying to you,
“I love you …
I love you and I need you to bring forth your self.”
… How might your life be different?
Judith
Duerk
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“The open table fellowship of Jesus was…perceived as a challenge to the
purity system. And it was: the meals of Jesus embodied his alternative
vision of an inclusive community. The ethos of compassion led to an
inclusive table fellowship, just as the ethos of purity led to a closed
table fellowship.
“Ultimately, the meals of Jesus are the ancestor of the Christian
eucharist. The centrality of meals in the early Christian movement and
throughout Christian history goes back to the table fellowship of
Jesus.”
Marcus J. Borg
* * *
“What Jesus’ parable advocates…is an open commensality, an eating
together without using table as a miniature map of society’s vertical
discriminations and lateral separations. The social challenge of such
equal or egalitarian commensality is the parable’s most fundamental
danger and most radical threat.”
John Dominic Crossan
* * *
“It is called…Holy Communion because, when feeding at this implausible
table, Christians believe that they are communing with the Holy One
himself, his spirit enlivening their spirits, heating the blood, and
gladdening the heart…
“They are also, of course, communing with each other. To eat any meal
together is to meet at the level of our most basic need. It is hard to
preserve your dignity with butter on your chin, or to keep your distance
when asking for the tomato ketchup.
“To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our
most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for
each other. I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you need me to
help fill yours. As for the emptiness that’s still left over, well,
we’re in it together, or it in us. Maybe it’s most of what makes us
human and makes us brothers and sisters.”
Frederick Buechner
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from “Holocaust
Cantata: Songs from the Camps”
The prisoner rises, straw rustles ‘round him, / Poor slave he rises, shell of
a man
Has coffee only, has nothing more / Because today’s bread he ate yesterday.
Our thoughts so somber, our hearts so mournful,
The time so hopeless, so full of dread / of fires burning, the iron furnace,
That while alive our spirit’s flame burns out.
(“The Prisoner Rises”)
Oh, what are these chains and these handcuffs to us? / Oh, what is this
prison to us?
The strength of our spirits will conquer the tortures; The suffering
cannot o’erpower us! / So many have withered in dark cells for us, So many
have perished for us.
To win or to die, oh, what else have we left? / We’ll not let them rule
over us!
(“Song of the Polish Prisoners”)
Already rolling, puffing and blowing, / Already hearing the clatter taking
her away,
Eyes last meet, gazing, hands gesture, waving, / Unspoken silent sorrow.
Running still beside the train in fool’s futility, / Farewell my love!
Remember me!
Goodbye to eyes that once caressed me, / Farewell to love that owned my
heart,
The dark hour’s on us, our fate is sealed, / I must forget you!
Farewell my love!
(“The Train”)
Cello, play the sad song, / Song of agony and woe, / Song of bonds that still
hold on,
Song of days now gone. / Let these memories gently fly / To their native
countryside,
Through our sorrow, pain and tears, / Let the song play on.
Dreams of yore will not return, / Nor the reveries that burned,
Nor the nectar of sweet lips, / Nor these longing eyes!
Cello, play the sad song, / Song of pining, pain and tears,
Song remembering dreams of love / And of days now gone.
Play! Play! Cello, play! / Songs of days now gone.
(“Songs of Days Now Gone”)
Fifty years ago / when all the trains / Traveled toward one destination
My mother introduced me / to God / He joined us – on our journey.
(“An Accidental Meeting”)
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You have set the earth upon its foundations, / so that it shall never
move at any time.
O LORD, how manifold are your works! / In wisdom you have made them
all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
Glory to your mercy; glory to your power, glory to you!
because, remaining immutable and without change,
you are always completely in movement,
completely outside creation and completely in every creature,
you fill everything completely,
you who are completely outside everything, above everything.
You are not separated from the world,
for you are in everything, but above everything.
n
Symeon, Hymns of Divine Love
The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our
land. But how can you buy or sell the sky, the land? The
idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the
air or the spark of the water, then how can you buy them?
Every part of this Earth is sacred to my people; every shining pine
needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every
meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and
experience of my people. We know the sap that courses through
the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins.
We are a part of the Earth, and it is a part of us. The
perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the
great eagle: these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the
juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and the human all
belong to the same family. . . .
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children:
that the Earth is our mother? What befalls the Earth, befalls
all the children of Earth. This we know: the Earth does not
belong to the human; the human belongs to the Earth. All
things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humans
did not weave the web of life, we are merely strands of it.
Whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.
n
Attributed to Chief Seattle
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"The Discourse of the Good
Thief, " Nicanor Parra, Chile
"Remember me when thou comest into Thy Kingdom /Appoint me President of
the Senate
Appoint me Director of the Budget /Appoint me Attorney General of the
Republic
"Remember the crown of thorns /Make me Chilean Consul in Stockholm
Appoint me Superintendent of Railroads /Appoint me Commander-in-Chief of
the Army
"I'll take anything at all .... / Head of the Highway Department
Supervisor of Gardens and Parks .... /Put me in as Director of the Zoo.
"Blessed be the Name of the Father /And of the Son /And of the Holy
Spirit
Put me in as Ambassador to anyplace ....
"If it comes down to it / Put me in as Superintendent of Graveyards! "
God, I am sorry /I ran from you. /I am still running, /running from
that knowledge, /that eye, that love /from which /there is no
refute.
For you meant/only love, land I felt only fear, / and pain.
So once in Israel /love came /to us incarnate, /stood in the
doorway between /two worlds, /and we were all afraid.
Annie Dillard
"Cancion, "Denise Levertov
When I am the sky / a glittering bird
slashes at me with the knives of song.
When I am the sea / fiery clouds plunge into my mirrors,
fracture my smooth breath with crimson sobbing.
When I am the earth / I feel my flesh of rock wearing down;
pebbles, grit, finest dust, nothing.
When I am a woman - 0, when I am a woman,
my wells of salt brim and brim, / poems force the lock of my throat.
God of terror and joy, / you arise to shake the earth.
Open our graves and give us back the past;
So that all that has been buried / may be freed and forgiven,
and our lives may return to you / through the risen Christ, Amen.
Janet Morley
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I like your Christ.
I do not like your Christians.
They are so unlike your Christ. –
Gandhi
From the village of Bethany
to the city of Jerusalem was scarcely a half hour’s walk. Moving from
the village and across the Mount of Olives, a twist in the road revealed as
if by magic a panoramic view of the dun-brown holy city within its fortified
walls . . . . All along the valley and all across the lower slope of Mount
Olivet stirred the masses of pilgrims who had come for the Passover festival
. . . .
The “Pesach” (Passover)
was at hand. The people preparing for the festival were looking back
on their long history, rueful over the anguished adversity of their ancient
wandering migrations, and they prayed with fervor that God would come again
to restore prosperity to this land now trampled underfoot by the Gentiles.
Jesus, of course, knew the spirit of the feast. On this particular
day, shortly before the festival itself began, with full knowledge he dared
to plunge into that whirlpool of popular misunderstanding. Descending
from the Mount of Olives and through the cheers from the crowd, he certainly
knew that he was soon going to disappoint these people, and that the people
in their frustration would then turn against him . . . . Jesus, coming down
the
mountain and entering the city, wore a painful smile. –
Shusako Endo
Like splendid palm
branches, we are strewn in the Lord’s path. –
Latin antiphon
All those who die like
Jesus, sacrificing their lives out of love for the sake of a more dignified
human life, will inherit life in all its fullness. They are like
grains of wheat, dying to produce life, being buried in the ground only to
break through and grow – Leonardo Boff
Jesus, when you rode into
Jerusalem the people waved palms with shouts of acclamation. Grant
that when the shouting dies we may still walk beside you even to a cross . .
. . –
New Zealand Prayer Book
I bow to the sacred in
creation. May my spirit fill the world with beauty and wonder.
May my mind seek truth with humility and openness. May my heart
forgive without limit. May by love for friend, enemy and outcast be
without measure. –
Mary Lou Kownacki
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Four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq were taken hostage Nov.
26. They were there “Getting in the Way” of Jesus to stop what they could of
violence and war. Tom Fox’s body was found March 10. Norman Kemper,
James Loney, Harmeet Sooden were delivered from captivity by British troops
after 118 days. We have been hearing of them individually during Lent
and receiving prayers written by James Loney. Harmeet Sooden, 32,
electrical engineer, Montreal, Canada. Working on Master’s in literature
to teach. Enjoys art, plays and coaches squash, known as peace-loving
& fun.
From the arrogance
of power / Deliver us
From the poverty
of violence / Deliver us
From the tyranny
of greed / Deliver us
From the ugliness
of racism / Deliver us
From the politics
of hypocrisy / Deliver us
From the hysteria
of nationalism / Deliver us
From the cancer
of hatred / Deliver us
From the seduction
of wealth / Deliver us
From the addiction
of control / Deliver us
From the avarice
of imperialism / Deliver us
From the idolatry
of national security / Deliver us
From the despair
of fatalism / Deliver us
From the violence
of apathy / Deliver us
From the filth
of war / Deliver us
From the profanity
of war / Deliver us
From the necessity
of war / Deliver us
From the madness
of war / Deliver us
From the blasphemy
of war / Deliver us
From the brutality
of war / Deliver us
From the demonic
waste of war and preparation for war / Deliver us
Deliver us,
O God / Guide our feet into the ways of peace
In humility,
we ask / Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.
A great
hand of solidarity reached out for us, a hand that included the hands of Palestinian
children holding pictures of us, and the hands of the
British soldier who cut our chains with a bolt cutter. That great hand
was able to deliver the three of us from the shadow of death. I am grateful
in a way that can never be adequately expressed in words.
Statement by Jim Loney on Arrival
Home in Toronto
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