From the UCC Network: 07/30/2011 "Knitting Prayer Shawls and Baby Booties"

Knitting Prayer Shawls and Baby Booties

"For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works."

Excerpt from Psalm 139:13-18

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

On Tuesday nights, a group gathers in our church lobby to knit prayer shawls, baby blankets and booties for the members of our congregation. The knitting ministry meets the same night as our church council. So while we are in the conference room making big picture decisions about the life of the church, just a few feet away on the couches other people are knitting for the sick, the new babies or those in need of any kind of healing. I think it’s a nice combination of ministry on Tuesday nights, like a check and balance system for what leadership in the church is all about.

I still have the prayer shawl I received from my current church when I was sick, and I still have the prayer shawl I received from my former church when my mother passed away. I went on to inherit the prayer shawl her church made for her when she first fell ill. They all lie around my house as extra blankets in the family room, ordinary objects infused with prayer in the midst of our ordinary lives.

The prayer shawl didn't cure my mother's fatal illness. But there is no question in my mind that it was a conduit of healing. It remains a symbol to me of how all our churches are knit together by the Holy Spirit.

New babies receive a hand-made gift to keep them warm, blessed by prayer before it is given away. It's a symbol of a beautiful biblical metaphor that goes back many thousands of years. It seems that people have been knitting for one another forever, perhaps ever since God, the original knitter, knit each one of us together in our mother's womb. So indeed, we are wonderfully made.

Prayer

When I feel discouraged, unworthy or damaged, remind me that you, Divine Knitter, knit me together and made me wonderful. And when I feel cocky, superior or smug, remind me that you did the same for everyone else, too. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

From the UCC Network: 07/27/2011 "Just a Smidgen"

Just a Smidgen

Excerpt from Mark 4:30-32

Jesus said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." 

Refection by Ron Buford

Have you ever worked with a great cook who did not use teaspoons, tablespoons or cup measures? They might say, "Use just a smidgen of this or that — it's my secret ingredient."

"How much is a smidgen anyway?" the student asks.

She'd say, "Oh, about this much," grabbing "a smidgen" between her thumb and forefinger. 

The cooking lesson is nearly complete when the meal is served and the delicate balance of spices and ingredients is experienced, and understood. The student must then be able to replicate the recipe, connecting ingredients, technique, timing, and presentation.

It will take several tries for the chef in training to get it just right, replicating and perhaps even enhancing the original experience.

Jesus, the master teacher, teaches us that mixing prayer, Bible study, fellowship, work for justice, forgiveness, with just a "smidgen" of hopeful expectation, persistence, and love brings forth the Realm of God into our lives. With it, God transforms our weaknesses, failures, loneliness, disappointment, battles with illness, addiction and grief that seem too hard to bear...into life's greatest masterpieces.

From tiny seeds of hope, patience, persistence, love, and faith come great trees that when fully grown serve as a perch for others to come, sit, observe, and find the lessons they also need to thrive—and all because of "just a smidgen."

Prayer

Gracious God, I'm trying this recipe and it's not feeling like a masterpiece yet. Help me to keep cooking until my life is a masterpiece from your perspective.  Even if I cannot see it yet...I believe...a smidgen. May that smidgen make something of a masterpiece in my life today. Thank you. Amen.

About the Author Ron Buford, former coordinator of the UCC's God is still speaking campaign, consults with religious and nonprofit organizations, leads workshops, and preaches in churches across the U.S. and U.K. Ron also appears in the DVD-based progressive theology series, Living the Questions 2.0.

From the UCC Network: 07/27/201 "Sword Drill"

Sword Drill

Excerpt from Ephesians 6:10-18

"Take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell

How long would it take you to find Nahum in your Bible without the Table of Contents?  If it's greater than .0002 seconds, my childhood friend Tony would have you beat.  Once, he took me to Vacation Bible School at his church.  There, we did "sword drills."  The teacher would yell out a verse, and the student who found it in their Bible first would win.

Tony won a lot.  The teacher was kind when I asked how to spell "Matthew."

They did those drills because they wanted to be ready to unsheathe the right sword, or scripture reference, at a second's notice when called to spiritual battle.  That's not my theology of scripture or of the Christian life, but I'm still jealous of Tony.  I know my Bible pretty well now, but I still often feel like I'm trying to do complex math without having learned multiplication.  I suppose my 5th-grade teacher's admonition holds here, too: you'll always be able to use a calculator, but the more complicated stuff will be easier if you memorize your times tables now.

Why not commit to learning the books of the Bible this summer?  Why not commit to getting your kids, or your Sunday school kids, to do the same?  The Table of Contents will always be there, but your life of faith really will be easier if you get the basics down now.

Prayer

God, I'm not asking to beat Tony or anything, but can you please remind me how many k's there are in "Habakkuk"?  Amen.

Quinn G. Caldwell is Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and co-editor, with Curtis J. Preston, of the just-published Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ.

From the UCC Network: 07/25/2011 "The Biblical Family"

The Biblical Family

Genesis 28:35

"But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted . . ."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

Every now and then someone claims that there's something called "the biblical family." It seems to consist of a father and mother and two kids, all four brave, clean and reverent.

But when I read the Bible, I mostly run into families that aren't so orderly or predictable, and sometimes not even all that virtuous. In fact, many of the biblical families are kind of a mess.

Take this family, Jacob and his wife, Rachel, and Jacob's father-in-law, Laban. Jacob, who has been down on Laban's farm for far too long, wants to take his wives, Leah and Rachel, and go home. He tells Daddy Laban that fair wages for time served will be the speckled and spotted members of the flock. Laban says, "Sounds good. Deal."

But the very next thing you know Daddy Laban goes behind Jacob's back to cut all the speckled and spotted sheep out of the herd, which would have left Jacob a shepherd without sheep (or even goats). Not to be outdone, Jacob cooks up a breeding scheme that guarantees a bumper crop of speckled, striped and spotted kids and assures his fortunes. Jacob out-foxes his father-in-law.

These are my spiritual ancestors? This is a biblical family? This clever and conniving lot? Far from being pure, predictable and perfect, the biblical family looks pretty darn speckled, striped and spotted itself.

And the good news? That God can take speckled human beings and spotted sinners, like you and me, and make of us bearers of holy hope and divine promise. That from such raw material God can make a forgiven family who will be a blessing to all earth’s families.

Being "a biblical family" doesn't mean being perfect. It means that speckled and spotted, imperfect and sinful as we are, we are perfectly loved by this odd and insistent God.

Prayer

For your capacity to take us imperfect human beings and make us instruments of your perfect love and grace, I thank and praise you, O God. Amen.

About the Author Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His newest book is Stewardship for Vital Congregations, published by The Pilgrim Press. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts atwww.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking on Weekly Reading.

From the UCC Network: 07/24/2011 "Jesus is the Question"

Jesus is the Question

Excerpt from Mark 12:13-17

"Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?" . . . "Bring me a denarius and let me see it."  And they brought one. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

Jesus asks 307 different questions in the gospels.  (No, I didn't count them myself, but someone did.)  By contrast, Jesus only directly answers three of the 183 questions he is asked in the gospels.  Instead of answering a lot of questions, Jesus responds in other ways.

In some instances Jesus simply keeps silent, as when Pilate questioned him after his arrest.

Or, Jesus responds to a question with another question.  When asked, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Jesus points to a coin and asks, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"  (It reminds me of the old Jewish joke, "Why does a Jew always answer a question with a question?"  "Why shouldn't a Jew always answer a question with a question?")

Or, sometimes Jesus responds to questions indirectly.  For example, when Jesus is asked, "Who is my neighbor?" he responds by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Catholic author Richard Rohr writes, "In general, we can see that Jesus' style is almost exactly the opposite of modern televangelism or even the mainline church approach of 'Dear Abby' bits of inspiring advice and workable solutions for daily living.  Jesus is too much the Jewish prophet to merely stabilize the status quo with platitudes."

Jesus is not a giver of advice.  He doesn't give us a neat list of ten ways to be closer to God.  He does not provide easy answers.  Instead he asks hard questions.  In that he is more like the Zen master who asks questions to take us beyond the obvious to something deeper.

Easy answers can give us a sense of finality.  By entertaining hard questions God has a chance to change us.

So why does Jesus ask so many questions?  Well, why shouldn't Jesus ask so many questions?

Prayer

Jesus, what is the question you would ask me today?  And help me to respond, not with words, but with the way I live this day.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

From the UCC Network: 07/23/2011 "RESPECT"

RESPECT

Excerpt from Genesis 29:31—30:24

"In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, 'Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.' But she said to her, 'Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?' Rachel said, 'Then he may lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes.'" 

Reflection by Donna Schaper

Have you ever noticed that what people really want is respect?  The mandrake of respect.  They can put up with poverty, but can't live without respect.  They can put up with not being recognized for their labor, but not live a minute without respect.  When Rachel and Leah squabble about the adultery, they are saying something more than they no longer like each other.  One is saying to the other.  Enough.  "R E S P E C T,  find out what it means to me," as only Aretha Franklin can sing it.

Everybody has a breaking point.  Your partner can leave the dishtowel on the floor 99 times and the 100th time you declare the most intimate of catastrophes.  Your child can throw 15 tantrums on Wednesday only to be screamed at for the first one on Thursday.  Everybody has a mandrake.  The shrinks like to call these things triggers.  Don't you love gun metaphors?

War will stop if we learn how to give respect.  Street crime will decrease if young men find someone who understands that they don't really like school and that they need a little respect.  And as St. Francis fully understood,  you need to notice to be noticed, love to be loved – and respect to be respected.  Respect is the avant-garde of issues, the early soldier on the field.  It is not the rear guard of matters.  Take my husband, but for God’s sake at least leave me a mandrake.

Prayer 

Whatever happens between us and our friends and family, O God, let it issue in respect, first given, and then received.  We know you will take it from there.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City.  Her most recent book is Sacred Chow: a Guide to Holy Eating.

An Understanding of Radical Love [cross-post]

An Understanding of Radical Love

by Andrew Marin Friday, July 22nd, 2011

I am a Christian, so I know love. I know love because I am loved.

Unconditionally.

I know what love is supposed to look like and feel like. I know how I am suppose to love because Jesus invented the come-as-you-are-culture. Therefore if I am a believer in Jesus I must follow in his ways. TheWay.

Love.

It’s an odd thing when you think about it: That I must act, feel, support and have my spirit entwined with another in such a way that it provokes a deafening reaction of realness, contentment and security that are sunken deep into the core of the others’ being. That’s what love is.

Tangible.

Measurable.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Love is real and truthful. Love causes tears of joy. It causes a pause that elicits a quivering deep breath of exhaustion and relief with the understanding that the root of the most pain is finally engulfed in the core of the most secure of places.

Jesus.

Love.

That’s our command. It’s our Kingdom Job Description. There are no two ways around it. The Bible tells us that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict; God’s job to judge and ours to love. Billy Graham said that in defense of his love for our President after being accused by a Christian magazine that he was capitulating to President Clinton’s agenda after the sex scandal. That sex scandal.

This is what it means to practice in the Way.

That Way.

The challenge of our time is not how correct we can be. How orthodox. How much of a defender of the faith to keep out all potential heretics, haters and hooligans. We must stop being driven by the fear of the future and focus on how to love well in the here and now.

Right now.

A close friend of mine recently said:

I continue to find myself caring less and less about what each respective person professes to believe, and more about how they profess those beliefs in word and deed.

Oh.

My friend…

He’s gay.

“We should love one another.”

I’m not asking you to give up on the evangelicalness of who you are and what you believe. Not theologically or socially or politically. I’m suggesting it’s time to commit ourselves to the radical love that is irrevocably tied to the One we claim as our Savior.

“For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Who is our brother?

Other believers? Those who go to church like us? Look like us? Think like us? Act like us?

If someone from ‘the other’ isn’t a part of what you’re doing you’re not building a bridge toward the Kingdom you’re building an army here on earth.

Anyone can build an army. Takes no faith. No guts. No love.

No Jesus.

On the reality show NY Ink about a New York City tattoo parlor, a man tatted from head to toe described his understanding of love:

You know someone’s commitment is real when they charge in when everyone else is running out.

Who and what are you committed to? Who and what are you charging towards?

Is it to the fidelity and work of Jesus’ love that created the best case scenario for living a faithful and righteous life,

or

Is it to feeling ok that you’re right with none of Jesus’ intimate love for the others whom you believe are wrong …

Much love.

Andrew

—-

Andrew Marin (@Andrew_Marin and www.facebook.com/Marin.Andrew) is the President and Founder of The Marin Foundation which works to build bridges between the LGBT community and the Church. Andrew is the author of the award winning book, Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community (InterVarsity Press, 2009), which has won more awards than any other individual book in the long-standing history of InterVarsity Press. He and his wife, Brenda, live in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago.

Mistakes of democracy [cross-post]

CENTURY BLOG

Mistakes of democracy

Jul 22, 2011 by Amy Frykholm

One of the most interesting posts on Middle East expert Juan Cole's extensive blog is his advice to fledgling Arab democracies on how to build a democracy. He bases his advice on ten mistakes that he thinks Americans have made in the formation and perpetuation of our democracy.

For example, at this formative moment, Arab nations can avoid television advertisements for and against candidates; they can set a day for free elections that is fair to working people (Tuesdays were enacted in the United States, Cole argues, to discourage people from voting); they can enact a bill of rights that has updated understandings of technology and the kinds of interferences that governments can make in the lives of citizens.

Cole's litany of what has gone wrong with American democracy--our enormous prison population and our capitulation to the economic interests of the wealthy top among them--is depressing, but it behooves us to listen. "You are young," Cole says to the Arab world, "and you still weep at the thought of freedom, and of those who died for it." If the Arab world is able to create strong and free democracies, we will have much to learn from them.

From the UCC Network: 07/22/2011 "God's House"

God's House

Excerpt from Acts 7:44-53

"It was Solomon who built a house for God. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says, 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?'"

Reflection by William C. Green

The oldest known house of worship in the world was located on top of a hill in what is now eastern Turkey. It was part of a religious complex named for its location, Gobeckli Tepe (pot-bellied hill). Far older than the stone monoliths at Stonehenge or on Easter Island, thousands of years older than the pyramids, this is where many have long thought civilization began about 10,000 BCE. The urge for the divine, worshipped in special places, has been part of what it means to be human since ancient days.

So what kind of house do we build for the Lord? The proper worship of God in the Bible moves from a tent, to a tabernacle (an elaborate tent), to a temple—to a text, the Torah, taught in small synagogues. The heart of the matter became the Bible and the vision it inspires. It’s not that earlier houses of worship were inherently wrong but that, in the view of the early church, they stole the show. Although the Bible, too, can be idolized, its message points beyond itself to a God as wide as the heavens and as broad as the earth.

You can see a hundred miles in any direction from the top of that pot-bellied hill in Turkey where so much began. Whatever our house of worship today, may it inspire the same breadth of vision.

Prayer

Almighty God, may the houses we build for you lead us to look in all directions, and to know the great embrace of your love ourselves for the sake of others. Amen.

About the Author William C. Green, a United Church of Christ minister, is the Director of Long Looking, a consultancy service specializing in fundraising and education for congregations. His new book, 52 Ways to Ignite Your Congregation: Generous Giving, has just been published.

From the UCC Network: 07/21/2011 "Get Up and Eat"

"Get Up and Eat"

Excerpt from 1 Kings 19:4-8

"[Elijah] went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: 'It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, 'Get up and eat.' He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, 'Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.' He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God." 

Reflection by Christina Villa

Here is the angel of the Lord, like somebody's grandmother, urging Elijah to "get up and eat." It's not much—bread and water—but fortified with two such meals, plus a couple of naps, Elijah is fit for his forty-day journey.

If only we could have such faith in just the basics: three meals a day and a night's sleep. Since these are so easy to come by for most of us, maybe we take them for granted. I don't mean taking for granted our good fortune in having enough to eat. I mean maybe we're unaware of the healing power of simply eating our meals and getting our sleep.

We think that in times of disappointment or despair we require something extra to make us feel better—whether it's the large order of fries or a vacation home in Costa Rica. Yoga classes, a better therapist, free-range chicken, heirloom tomatoes.

After a death, grieving people often can't eat, so everyone brings food to the house after a funeral. At those times, the urgency of "Get up and eat" is clear. You are here in the land of the living: that's the message of all those casseroles and loaves of banana bread.

Eat and rest. Meet your basic requirements. Experiment with the sufficiency of these to make you fit for whatever journey you face this week. And you may find yourself enjoying the french fries or the heirloom tomatoes more than ever.

Prayer

Dear God, send us angels to remind us that if we eat, drink, and rest, we can get up and continue on our journeys, even through the wilderness. Amen.

About the Author Christina Villa is on the staff of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio.

From the UCC Network: 07/20/2011 "The Doctor is NOT In"

"The Doctor is NOT in."

Excerpt from Matthew 12:15-21

"Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them, and he ordered them not to make him known."

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

Why didn't Jesus want people to know he had the power to heal diseases? Why wouldn't you want to advertise something like that?

I suspect it was because he was already overwhelmed with requests for healing. It is amazing how many of the gospel stories are about Jesus healing someone. Crowds were always following him. Yes, they wanted to hear his teachings, but so many of them must have just wanted to be healed from an illness or to have him help someone they loved.

If Jesus had wanted to, he could have set up shop as a miraculous physician and had people lining up, even paying. Someone with that power could have spent every waking hour doing nothing else, for there is no shortage of physical suffering in the world. He could have put the money to a good cause, started a nonprofit, and hired consultants to maximize his efficiency as a healer.

But Jesus had more to do and more to say. He healed along the way, but he must have known that this was Band-Aid work, no pun intended. He could cure one person at a time, but it would do little to change the world and how we live in it. Eventually, he would pass away and humanity would be right back where it was.

So in his compassion he healed. But in his divine purpose he preached that, one day, we will meet God in a place where sin and death have no power. And in the meantime, he refused to let the people turn a savior into a service provider.

I don’t why he did that. I know how much I would love physical healing, not just for myself but for so many people I love. But in the end, Jesus even allowed himself to suffer physically on the cross, and took healing to a scale we can barely comprehend.

Prayer

We pray for healing for the people we love and for ourselves, healing of mind and body and spirit. And we thank you, Christ, for your healing work, which we may only recognize on the other side of the veil.  Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

"All Filled Up" [cross-post]

Life Support System

Life, love and laughter from Steve Goodier. Life Support System articles, stories, humor and inspiration.

ALL FILLED UP

I recall reading that a man from Virginia Beach (Virginia, USA) filed a law suit against his hospital. He opted to have surgery in order to lose weight. So he had his stomach stapled -- a procedure that reduced the size of his stomach so he couldn't eat as much.

A couple of days after surgery he sneaked down the hospital corridors to the kitchen. There he raided the refrigerator and ate so much that his staples burst.

The law suit? He claimed it was the hospital's fault. They should have locked the refrigerator.

And no - I don't know how the suit came out. Just the staples.

He wanted to make other people responsible for what he put into his mouth. Which raises the question: who decides what we bring into our lives?

One man told me, "I'm not a garbage truck."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

"I mean that sometimes other people want to dump their garbage on me," he said. "They fill themselves up with negativity and complaints and want to dump all of that garbage on me. I'm not going to take all of their garbage. They may need to get rid of it, but not all over me."

He believes people need to be responsible for the garbage in their lives. And that's probably true for the good stuff, too. For me, that includes just about everything. It means I am responsible for everything I put into my mouth, but also for everything I choose to watch and hear. Some of it's good and some of it's garbage. It even means everything that comes into my head through my eyes and ears. It's also about everything that fills up my time. Everything.

And to be honest, I don't always do a great job with everything that comes into my life. But I am clear that what I allow in is up to me, not somebody else.

When we fill our bodies with the right foods, they perform well.

When we fill our heads with learning, they won't easily stagnate.

When we fill our minds with healthier attitudes, we will have a better outlook.

When we fill our hearts with a little more courage, we will be able to face life with confidence.

When we fill our talk with more gratitude, we will be happier.

When we fill our lives with more love, we will never be alone.

Only we can decide how to fill ourselves up.

Have you heard the story of the two wolves? A common version of it goes like this:

An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life ...

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt and ego.

"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."

Only I can choose what should come into my life. Only I can choose which wolf to feed. And only I can choose what to do about it today.

-- Steve Goodier

From the UCC Network: 07/19/2011 "God Available"

God Available

Excerpt from 2 Chronicles 15:1-15

"The spirit of God came upon Azariah who went out to meet Asa and said to him, 'Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you, while you are with him. If you seek God, God will be found by you, but if you abandon God, God will abandon you.'  When Asa heard these words, the prophecy, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols . . . . He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord."

Reflection by Ron  Buford

When a worship service has no prayer of confession, I wonder, "Am I the lone sinner in the house looking for more power than I brought in here?"

I know I've got stuff . . . . And to be honest, I think you may have some, too.

Hear the Good News! Our stuff is no barrier for God! God's available to take it off our hands and hearts.

Asa repaired the altars as a symbol of his new journey toward God, one that would bring peace to his kingdom for many years. We might do well to do the same. 

How? Remove everything that hinders spending quality time with God and loving your neighbors as yourself. Read the Bible. Pray. Seek justice in God’s name. Doing what you can, trust God to do what you cannot. Consider the possibility that everything we need to know may not be rational and that many of the rational things we think we know, need re-imagining.

Repair your altars. Meet the still-speaking, still-creating God, as if for the first time. Reject dead, powerless, distracting, life -draining "idols," like fear, guilt, shame, vengeance, hatred, and old images of God, church, and you.

Haven't these idols failed you long enough?

Instead, seek and re-imagine God in ways that help you love everyone, the way God loves you. Without God, it's impossible, so—repair the altars in your life.

Call a meeting with God. You'll find God already there and waiting for you.

Prayer

Gracious God, please help me remove any old images and misconceptions and barriers to reflecting your miraculous ever-renewing Presence, Power, and Love for me and all the world. Thank you, Amen.

About the Author Ron Buford, former coordinator of the UCC's God is still speaking campaign, consults with religious and nonprofit organizations, leads workshops, and preaches in churches across the U.S. and U.K. Ron also appears in the DVD-based progressive theology series, Living the Questions 2.0.

From the UCC Network: 07/18/2011 "We Are Not Climbing Jacob's Ladder"

We Are Not Climbing Jacob's Ladder

Excerpt from Genesis 28:10-19

"And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

I love the song, "We are climbing Jacob's ladder, we are climbing Jacob's ladder . . . every rung goes higher, higher, every rung goes higher, higher."

But on reading the actual story in Genesis, I noticed something. We human beings aren't the ones climbing the ladder. It is angels, messengers of God, who are ascending and descending the ladder from heaven to earth. So what?

We can get the idea that it is all about us climbing ladders, whether worldly or spiritual. Getting to the right neighborhood, the right job or school. Becoming more spiritual can be another ladder to climb. We can get the idea that by our resolute and steady climbing, we shall attain some God place.

Except our story says something different. It says that God comes down to this place, to our place, wherever that place may be. And then we, with Jacob, stammer in astonished surprise, "Surely God is in this place and I did not know it."

The popular author Karen Armstrong, in a recent book, urges that true religion is our human search for an ultimately unknowable God. Reading this, I thought, the gospel says something different. It says that God has come in search of us. In Jesus, God comes down the ladder to find us, even when we aren't very "spiritual," even when we are lost and on the run.

Prayer

I thank thee, O God, that the good news is not about my upward climb, but about your downward descent; that faith begins when we, though like Jacob lost and on the run, are found by you. Amen.

About the Author Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His newest book is Stewardship for Vital Congregations, published by The Pilgrim Press. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts atwww.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking on Weekly Reading.

From the UCC Network: 07/16/2011 "Don't Just Do Something"

"Don't Just Do Something"

Excerpt from Exodus 14:9-25

"But Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.'"

Reflection by Felix Carrion

We have heard it said, "Don't just sit there, do something." The message here is get busy; don't let this moment pass you by. When those who love us tell us this, they are desperate for us; they believe in us, they know that there is kinetic power in our moving.

There is also an assumption that within us lays the fight, the momentum to make something happen. There is reliance here on the power of human utility, human ingenuity, human daring, human know-how. We think that as long as we are moving, we are of some worth to ourselves and others.

Then there is another saying that holds as much power and vitality, but in our industrious way of life almost sounds offensive: "Don't just do something, sit there."  This saying assumes that that there are limits to our fight, our human utility; that if not checked, our industriousness will get us into trouble.  Our activity needs pause, needs observation, of the kind that demands stillness and humility. Here we begin to understand that the fight is not always ours, that the doing is not always ours, that the understanding is not always ours.

To let God be God in our lives requires a stillness of exceptional defiance. Stillness, contrary to what many think, is hard work. There are moments to forge ahead; and then there are times to sit and wait for God to reveal what lies ahead , what will be the outcomes of our reliance on God. The moment will then surely come when God will say to us, "Get up and get going."

Prayer

O God, grant us the wisdom to know when we are to "do something" and when we are to "sit still."  Either way, you are at work in and through us. Amen.

About the Author Felix Carrion is Coordinator of The Stillspeaking Ministry, United Church of Christ.

From the UCC Network: 07/15/2011 "Searched + Known + Loved"

Searched + Known + Loved 

Excerpt from Psalm 139

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away."
 
Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell

This is my mother's favorite Psalm.  For her, the idea of a God this all-knowing is a source of supreme comfort.  To me growing up, it was mostly just creepy.  In my teenage mind, it all felt a little too much like God the Stalker, peeping at me through the windows and doing drive-bys of my house.  Or maybe God as Big Brother, monitoring my library records and digging through the trash cans to see what kind of stuff I bought.  I wanted my privacy—even from God.

These days, I'm less convinced that privacy is such a great virtue, at least where God's concerned.  And I am very convinced that God's ways are not our ways.  What's creepy and dangerous in humans or governments is a very good thing in a deity.  I tend to think (sometimes, anyway) that if the people around me knew everything there is to know about me, I wouldn't be very popular.  But the biblical witness is that God does know all of it, everything, all my habits and deeds, every ugliness and act of beauty I have ever performed—and loves me anyway, completely and fiercely.  These days, that feels a lot less like creepiness and a lot more like grace.

Turns out Mom was right again.

Prayer

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  Amen.

Quinn G. Caldwell is Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and co-editor, with Curtis J. Preston, of the just-published Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ.