Come together


Have a seat.  Spotted in Budapest during our Presbytery weekend

 

For wherever two or three people come together in my name, I am there, right among you!
(Matt 18:20, J.B. Phillips New Testament)

 
 
The Presbytery of International Charges of the Church of Scotland gathered in Budapest this past weekend, hosted by the congregation there. I testify that Jesus was with us – in our worship, in our meetings and in the informal gatherings, as we strengthened our bounds and offered one another support and encouragement.

It is my prayer that our respective congregations will benefit too, as we return with wisdom, inspiration and hope for the months and years ahead.
 

Closing commission

We have sung, we have prayed,
we have worshiped together.
Now we go back out into the world.
We came together to build relationships,
relationships with each other,
and our relationship with Jesus.
We go out as people who are strengthened by our connections,
ready to love and to serve;
ready to carry God’s love to the world.
As you journey through the ups and the downs of the coming week,
let us remember that God,
who has invited us into relationship,
is always with us.
Go with God, as the people of God.
So be it! Amen

 
~ posted by Rev Gord on worshipofferings.blogspot.com,
sourced from re:worship
 

Thank you. For making me me


Mural by Joy Yamusangie (Artist in residence), London St Pancras

 

A follow-up to yesterday’s post …

 

Litany

(inspired by Genesis 1)

In the beginning God created all things
and God saw that they were good.

At our beginning, God created us
unique and irreplaceable
loved by God and wanted by God
known to God and treasured by God
even before he created us.

In all our new beginnings, God creates something new.
So we will seek God
in the freshness of morning
in the laughter of friends
in the colours of creation
and in the warmth of spring-time sunshine.

Lord God, King of Creation,
open our eyes to see your presence
our souls to sense your presence
and our hearts to love your presence
ever here in your creation
and ever beyond it in eternity.
Amen

 
source: wellsprings.org.uk
 

Thank you. For making me

As I was working on this post I discovered that a webpage featuring the lyrics to my song, “Thank you, thank you”, had some curious typos. Also, the verse I wanted to spotlight (“Thank you, Lord, for making me”) isn’t included in the recording.

Please overlook the oversight, and join in this simple song of thanks to the God who made us, loves us, saved us and blesses us in countless ways. Perhaps make it personal and add some verses of your own.
 

A prayer

O my God teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you …

You are my God and you are my All
and I have never seen you.

You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you …

I have not yet done that for which I was made …
Teach me to seek you …

I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.

Let me seek you in my desire,
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you.

 
~ written by Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), posted on re:worship
 

From the blog
Theme: God makes all things new  [prayer sheet]
First steps
I hear you
 

Making, making, making

 

Back story

I shared a version of this poem during the Away Day I led at the Scots Kirk, Lausanne earlier this month. It was so well received the group decided to include it in our presentation during Sunday worship the following day.

I’ve since made contact with the author, Wendy Videlock, and got permission to share it with you too. (Thanks, Erica, for giving me the idea.)

You can hear Wendy Videlock reading the poem on Emerging Form Podcast #51 (from 13:30).
 

Poem

 
On Hearing Yet Another Someone Say
they Haven’t Got a Creative Bone in their Body

And yet you’ve spent your entire life
creating — you’ve spent your life
                 making —
making dinner, making drinks,
making fire, making
the cut, making amends,
making fun,
making the team,
making money, making
lemonade

of lemons, yes — we spend
our whole lives making —
making decisions,
making peace,
making war,
making mistakes,
making a call, making some
       kind
               of sense of it all —

we can’t help but spend our lives making,
       making music, making choices,
making strides, making up

for lost time,
making hay, making haste,
making promises and progress,
making love, making
history, making
predictions, making
productions, making
light

of the situation,

we make space,
we make friends,
we make magic, we make trouble,
we make mountains

out of molehills,

we make tea,
we make tracks,
we make use, we make do,
we make way, we make curds,
we make words, we make waves
we make meaning —
       we are born

into this world and are made

(when we’re not humans being)

for making, making, making.

 
~ from Wise to the West by Wendy Videlock, used with permission

 

Maker of heaven and earth


Hopscotch between heaven and earth (hemel en aarde)
 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains –
      where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
      the Maker of heaven and earth.

(Psalm 121:1-2)
 
 
A big thank you to the Scots Kirk Lausanne who summoned me to the mountains last weekend to conduct a workshop on the Psalms: Prayer book, Songbook and God’s Word, with a special focus on Psalm 121.
 
Wherever you are – whether there are mountains in sight or not – may you experience the Lord’s nearness; know that “the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore”. (Psalm 121:8)
 

Prayer: Thanks Be to the Lord

(inspired by Psalm 121)

For those who have watched over me,
for those that have protected me,
for those that have shielded me,
thanks be to the Lord,
maker of heaven and earth.

For the roof that shades me from the sun,
for the walls that shield me from the storm,
for the bed that warms me in the night,
thanks be to the Lord,
maker of heaven and earth.

To the one who keeps me from evil,
to the one who preserves my life,
to the one who watches over my coming and going,
thanks be to the Lord,
maker of heaven and earth.

~ originally from the Christian Aid website, sourced from re:worship
 

What we know


 
 

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

We know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you. (1 Thessalonians 1:4)

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

 

Intergenerational Call to Worship

(based on Psalm 13)

We’ve come to worship,
to sing and pray and hear God’s Word, because:
God’s love lasts forever!

Even when God seems far away, we know:
God’s love lasts forever!

Even when nothing is going right,
and we’re ready to give up, we know:
God’s love lasts forever!

When people treat us badly, we know:
God’s love lasts forever!

When we’re all alone,
and we feel like no one loves us, we know:
God’s love lasts forever!

Let’s worship God together!

 
~ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship
 

May we know the hope – here, now


Detail of stained glass window in Ontmoetingskerk, Krimpen aan de Lek, NL
 
 
 
So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. (Ephesians 1:18)
 

Blessing of Hope

So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:

hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,

hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,

hope that has breath
and a beating heart,

hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,

hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,

hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,

hope that raises us
from the dead—

not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.

— by Jan Richardson, from paintedprayerbook.com
 

From the blog
Theme: Come to the waters  [prayer sheet]
Song in the night
People of the way

 

How do we know?


 

A quote by Madeleine L’Engle to ponder:

It is a frightening thing for many people to let go, to have faith in that which they cannot completely know and control.
      But how do we know?
      We’ve lost much of the richness of that word. Nowadays, to know means to know with the intellect. But it is a much deeper word than that. Adam knew Eve. To know deeply is far more than to know consciously. In the realm of faith I know far more than I can believe with my finite mind. I know that a loving God will not abandon what he creates. I know that the human calling is cocreation with this power of love. I know that ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, not things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
      But in this limited world we tend to lose this kind of knowing, and this loss has permeated our fiction as well as our prayer.

 
~ from Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art, p. 173
 

We know … we know not …


 

Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
Psalm 139:14, The Voice

 

Call to Worship

(based on Psalm 126)

Let us begin this day by rejoicing!
The Lord has done such wonderful things for us.
Let us be glad!
The day before us is uncertain.
We know not what we will encounter on our way.
Wherever we go, we go forth as people of the living God,
and we go forth to touch the lives of all with his healing touch.
Let us begin this day with rejoicing!
and return to our homes with gladness!

~ from re:worship
 

From the blog
Yield as sacrifice
Beyond
In the school of prayer with Ann Lewin
 

Desire and transformation


 
 
Jan Richardson writes,

Loving is always risky, because we cannot enter into it without being changed. Altered. Transformed. In the face of this, we might well ask, Do I really want this? Do we really desire to be so undone?
 
Loving is never just about opening our heart. It is about being willing to have our heart become larger as we make room for people and stories and experiences we never imagined holding. It is about being willing to have our heart become deeper as we move beyond the surface layers of our assumptions, prejudices, and habits in order to truly see and receive what—and who—is before us. It is about being willing to have our heart continually shattered and remade as we take in not only the brokenness of the world but also the beauty of it, the astounding wonder that will not allow us to remain the same.

 

~ from the paintedprayerbook.com archives
 

A prayer

O Lord, I do not know what to ask of you. You alone know what are my true needs. You love me more than I myself know how to love. Help me to see my real needs, which are concealed from me. I dare not ask for either a cross or a consolation; I can only wait on you. My heart is open to you. Come to me and help me, for your great mercy’s sake … I put all my trust in you. I have no other desire than to fulfil your will. Teach me how to prayer; pray yourself in me.

~ written by Metropolitan Theodore Philaret of Moscow (1553-1633)
from The Book of a Thousand Prayers by Angela Ashwin, #80