From the Desk of Rev. Laurie Furr-Vancini:
I arrive before everyone else.
Loads of food for BEAM lies on the floor.
Books on the front desk counter - heartbeat of God and pillars of creation.
Boys from the American Boys Choir frolic in the garden.
Gathering, 10, 20, 30 in red, white and blue.
Hackysacking, wandering, picking pomegranates.
My desk strewn with cameras, fish banks, worship prep, LOGOS, VBS paperwork.
The day to come.
All is right with the world.
God smiles.
Across the globe the numbers of dead from Japan rise as tall as tsunami waves.
God weeps.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Lent Devotional: March 14
(Sermon excerpt from Sunday, March 13th
"God is Insanely Loving" by the Rev. Andrew Kukla)
All that we find and see in scripture that is filled with the proliferation of sin AND forgiveness, brokenness AND restoration, and the time and again way in which God is moved to try again with God's people means that God - despite God's anger and frustrated hopes - has not given up... God's deep, passionate love of everything will not give up.
They say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result. And by every shred of evidence I see, God is insane... God is insanely in love with you - with all of us - with all of creation.
"If you do not know love, you do not know God, for God is love."
---------------------------------------------
If God loves everyone and everything, and never gives up that love, how does that have a radical call on how we might choose to act towards everyone regardless of those things that we think divide us: race, creed, nation, status, world view, and even how they might treat us?
"God is Insanely Loving" by the Rev. Andrew Kukla)
All that we find and see in scripture that is filled with the proliferation of sin AND forgiveness, brokenness AND restoration, and the time and again way in which God is moved to try again with God's people means that God - despite God's anger and frustrated hopes - has not given up... God's deep, passionate love of everything will not give up.
They say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result. And by every shred of evidence I see, God is insane... God is insanely in love with you - with all of us - with all of creation.
"If you do not know love, you do not know God, for God is love."
---------------------------------------------
If God loves everyone and everything, and never gives up that love, how does that have a radical call on how we might choose to act towards everyone regardless of those things that we think divide us: race, creed, nation, status, world view, and even how they might treat us?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Lent Devotional: March 13
Today marks the first Sunday in Lent. It will also continue Palms second year of the Journey to Discipleship. Last year we began a new tradition of using Lent as a time for intentional focus on discipleship. As we Journey to the cross with Jesus we, like the disciples of the Bible, place ourselves at Jesus feet to hear his teaching and learn to walk in the way of Jesus in our daily lives.
A question I am often asked is, why discipleship?
It seems that many of us find the word disciple daunting, intimidating... too much. We prefer to think of ourselves as Christians, or members of the church. And yet Christ's command to his original twelve disciples is not to go make members of the church - or go gather adherents to a set of beliefs (Christians). Christ tells them to go make disciples, people who will follow Jesus with them, learning to walk in the way of Jesus in all they do and say.
As I read scripture there is very little daunting or intimidating about the disciples - in fact they are usually getting it all wrong. They too struggle with Jesus words, and they too often miss the meaning. They lose faith and struggle to grasp the vision. The only single attribute that I find in the disciples that sets them apart from others is that when the rubber hits the road, when they are challenged and afflicted by Christ's words, they still choose to follow in the way Jesus leads them. Others hear discouraging news and fade into the night (Nicodemus and the rich young ruler for instance), but the disciples - thick brained, over-eager, prideful men that they are - constantly stay with Jesus. Peter sums it up, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)
If you see in Jesus one that you wish to follow... if you sense that in Christ you find the way, the truth, and the life... then you are a disciple! You are called by God to follow in the way of Jesus and to share that gift by nurturing, equipping, and sharing the journey with other disciples. Naming yourself as a member of church is about naming where you find community... and that's important. But being a disciple? It is the essential journey of a lifetime where we follow Jesus and learn to live according to his word and way.
This Lent I hope that you find ways to connect deeply with God in answer to your call to discipleship. This particular year we have focused our conversation on love. Hearing those words we say in every baptism, "We love because God first loved us," (I John 4:19) we pause to reflect on how we are living that out in our life. As disciples how are we learning to live in Christ-like love.
Why discipleship? Because I firmly believe that being a disciple is what it means to be human. Being human is being God's children who follow God's son into the world in the way of love.
Join us on the journey!
Blessings and Love,
Rev. Andrew Kukla
On each of the six Sundays of Lent our Lenten Devotional will be short testimony from a Palms member of how discerning discipleship and living into the love of God has changed their life. Sharing stories of faith and discipleship is essential in Christian community but not always easy to do. We hope this can be one more way that we help each other to engage in this rich and wonderful practice of nurturing one another at Palms. If you have a story to tell we invite you to share that story on our blog or facebook page, you will find the links to each of those below. You are also welcome to send an email reply. Community is about sharing stories that feed faith - share yours today!
A question I am often asked is, why discipleship?
It seems that many of us find the word disciple daunting, intimidating... too much. We prefer to think of ourselves as Christians, or members of the church. And yet Christ's command to his original twelve disciples is not to go make members of the church - or go gather adherents to a set of beliefs (Christians). Christ tells them to go make disciples, people who will follow Jesus with them, learning to walk in the way of Jesus in all they do and say.
As I read scripture there is very little daunting or intimidating about the disciples - in fact they are usually getting it all wrong. They too struggle with Jesus words, and they too often miss the meaning. They lose faith and struggle to grasp the vision. The only single attribute that I find in the disciples that sets them apart from others is that when the rubber hits the road, when they are challenged and afflicted by Christ's words, they still choose to follow in the way Jesus leads them. Others hear discouraging news and fade into the night (Nicodemus and the rich young ruler for instance), but the disciples - thick brained, over-eager, prideful men that they are - constantly stay with Jesus. Peter sums it up, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)
If you see in Jesus one that you wish to follow... if you sense that in Christ you find the way, the truth, and the life... then you are a disciple! You are called by God to follow in the way of Jesus and to share that gift by nurturing, equipping, and sharing the journey with other disciples. Naming yourself as a member of church is about naming where you find community... and that's important. But being a disciple? It is the essential journey of a lifetime where we follow Jesus and learn to live according to his word and way.
This Lent I hope that you find ways to connect deeply with God in answer to your call to discipleship. This particular year we have focused our conversation on love. Hearing those words we say in every baptism, "We love because God first loved us," (I John 4:19) we pause to reflect on how we are living that out in our life. As disciples how are we learning to live in Christ-like love.
Why discipleship? Because I firmly believe that being a disciple is what it means to be human. Being human is being God's children who follow God's son into the world in the way of love.
Join us on the journey!
Blessings and Love,
Rev. Andrew Kukla
On each of the six Sundays of Lent our Lenten Devotional will be short testimony from a Palms member of how discerning discipleship and living into the love of God has changed their life. Sharing stories of faith and discipleship is essential in Christian community but not always easy to do. We hope this can be one more way that we help each other to engage in this rich and wonderful practice of nurturing one another at Palms. If you have a story to tell we invite you to share that story on our blog or facebook page, you will find the links to each of those below. You are also welcome to send an email reply. Community is about sharing stories that feed faith - share yours today!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Lent Devotional: March 12
"I'm giving up something for Lent."
Giving up. Those words puzzle me. They speak too much off self, of my control, of faith on my terms.
The early Christians said Christ emptied himself. He didn't give up, but emptied. I wonder what I need to empty this Lenten season.
(Reflection by Rev. Tom Walker)
Giving up. Those words puzzle me. They speak too much off self, of my control, of faith on my terms.
The early Christians said Christ emptied himself. He didn't give up, but emptied. I wonder what I need to empty this Lenten season.
(Reflection by Rev. Tom Walker)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Lent Devotional: March 11
Ash Wednesday
I came home from worship.
She said, “Hey, what have you been doing, your forehead is dirty?”
I said, “I was reminded how vulnerable and fragile life is and how deeply I am loved…”
“Oh,” she said, “…here’s a napkin to wipe that off.”
I thought to myself, “not yet…not yet…”
(Reflection by Rev. Carol DiGiusto)
I came home from worship.
She said, “Hey, what have you been doing, your forehead is dirty?”
I said, “I was reminded how vulnerable and fragile life is and how deeply I am loved…”
“Oh,” she said, “…here’s a napkin to wipe that off.”
I thought to myself, “not yet…not yet…”
(Reflection by Rev. Carol DiGiusto)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Lent Devotional: Mar 10
Smeared with ashes of palm fronds,
"You are dust and to dust you shall return" still ringing in our ears,
we dashed through the rain to our cars, our homes, our families,
our chores, our tv shows, our jobs, our lives,
almost forgetting that mark of death we bore into the world,
until we absentmindedly rubbed our forehead or walked past a mirror,
noting with surprise that even television and soap cannot separate us
from our own mortality.
--Reflection from Rev. Katie Day
"You are dust and to dust you shall return" still ringing in our ears,
we dashed through the rain to our cars, our homes, our families,
our chores, our tv shows, our jobs, our lives,
almost forgetting that mark of death we bore into the world,
until we absentmindedly rubbed our forehead or walked past a mirror,
noting with surprise that even television and soap cannot separate us
from our own mortality.
--Reflection from Rev. Katie Day
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Lent Devotional: Ash Wednesday, March 9
We arrive today at another season of Lent and the Palms Journey to Discipleship. This year our theme is "Living in Christ-like Love". We will journey together through a sermon series on love using I John 4:7-21, through Sunday school classes themed on discipleship and love, and through a lenten daily devotional. This year our devotional will look a little different.
The Palms staff has become intrigued at the power of short story and few words to evoke deep thought. So this year our devotional will not be lengthy reflections but provocative thoughts for you to wrestle with... we will provide you a spark in hopes that you will write your own devotional.
Each Monday will begin with a short thought and question from the sermon the day before, and then each day a different pastor will add another short provocative thought into the mix. We invite you to play with these and think on them through your day. You can even make it a conversation by making a comment or responding to comments on our blog, you will find the link to it below.
Today marks the beginning of Lent, a day we call Ash Wednesday. Many of us associate Ash Wednesday as something Catholics do, and aren't sure what the service is about - except maybe we know that you get ashes put on your forehead.
Ash Wednesday is really about beginning a journey with Christ to the cross. The ashes remind us that "from ashes we came and to ashes we will return". Ashes then become symbolic for death and life in the same way that Christ will forever link his risen life with death upon the cross. The Resurrected life in Christ only comes to us in a journey through death and brokenness. The ashes then are our own confessional awareness, our own experience of death and brokenness that leads us to life in Christ.
This year the scripture that captured our attention for Ash Wednesday comes from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.
But we have this treasure in clay jars,
so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
For while we live,
we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake,
so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.
(2Co 4:7-11)
I hope that you take some time today to reflect on this passage, and join us this evening for the Ash Wednesday service at 7 pm in the Sanctuary. It is the begining of our community journey this lent in discipleship, a journey following Christ to the cross and to resurrected life.
The Palms staff has become intrigued at the power of short story and few words to evoke deep thought. So this year our devotional will not be lengthy reflections but provocative thoughts for you to wrestle with... we will provide you a spark in hopes that you will write your own devotional.
Each Monday will begin with a short thought and question from the sermon the day before, and then each day a different pastor will add another short provocative thought into the mix. We invite you to play with these and think on them through your day. You can even make it a conversation by making a comment or responding to comments on our blog, you will find the link to it below.
Today marks the beginning of Lent, a day we call Ash Wednesday. Many of us associate Ash Wednesday as something Catholics do, and aren't sure what the service is about - except maybe we know that you get ashes put on your forehead.
Ash Wednesday is really about beginning a journey with Christ to the cross. The ashes remind us that "from ashes we came and to ashes we will return". Ashes then become symbolic for death and life in the same way that Christ will forever link his risen life with death upon the cross. The Resurrected life in Christ only comes to us in a journey through death and brokenness. The ashes then are our own confessional awareness, our own experience of death and brokenness that leads us to life in Christ.
This year the scripture that captured our attention for Ash Wednesday comes from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.
But we have this treasure in clay jars,
so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
For while we live,
we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake,
so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.
(2Co 4:7-11)
I hope that you take some time today to reflect on this passage, and join us this evening for the Ash Wednesday service at 7 pm in the Sanctuary. It is the begining of our community journey this lent in discipleship, a journey following Christ to the cross and to resurrected life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)