church – Wandering and Wondering

A Blessing for Your Journey

For those times when goodbyes are necessary, it is important to mark the occasion so that the community can both celebrate and grieve.

You are each a blessing.
We have been richer for your presence.
We are thankful for the time you have shared in this gathered body.
A part of us weeps at your absence,
but a greater part of us celebrates with you as you take this next step in life.

As we send you off, we offer you this blessing:

Go with our love in your hearts.
Go knowing you have made an impact here.
Go knowing you will always be a part of us.
Go with our blessings—

May God bless you and keep you as you reestablish your roots.
May you build community and find a new church home.
May you create new memories and be filled with joy
as you grow into your new life.
And as you are blessed, may you share that blessing
with all whom you meet.

We send you with love.
We send you with hope.
We send you with our support, if ever you need it.
May God watch over you,
and may this be a wonderful new adventure.

Amen.

You go with our blessing—and our love goes with you.

Blessing for a Baptismal Font

The church I am serving has only a small silver bowl as their baptismal font, which regularly gets locked up following a baptism not to be seen again until the next baptism. For me, baptismal fonts are meant to be in view at all times. They are meant not just to baptize people, but also to constantly remind us of that baptism.

I love the story that I was told in seminary of the reformer Martin Luther often walking around saying, “I am baptized. I am baptized. I am baptized.” as a way to find his grounding and remembering his courage which was not just in him but beyond him.

One of my mentors, Rev. Wendy Miller-Olapade, shared with me that each time she washes her hands, she is reminded of her baptism. She takes these simple and mundane times as sacred, and, long ago, she encouraged me to do the same.

Baptism is not an act for a single day, but an invitation into and an outward act symbolizing the beginning of living a faith filled life. Therefore, for this congregation, I have been on the hunt for baptismal font.

I finally found one that another congregation was re-homing as their congregation was dissolving. They sought new life for as much of their liturgical tools and furniture as possible. I had to arrange or transportation, but they were happy to find it a new home where it would be loved and used.

This week, we will bless it and welcome it into use in our congregation. Next Sunday, it will get to be used to welcome its first little one in our congregation into the life of Christ.

The challenge that I found was liturgy. I wanted to offer the font some official blessing into service, but I could not find much. So I offer you here what I created and think will work well in our context. I wanted the time of blessing to be significant, but not too long. I wanted to honor its past spiritual home just as we do with new members, and I wanted to include the kids in the blessing so it will be done during Chancel steps and they will join me in dotting it with some sacred oil.

Blessing of a Baptismal Font

Pastor: As we accept this baptismal font into our church as a tool to be used for one of our sacraments, let us take a moment to bless it:

For what is was,

For what it will be . . .

People: We welcome this font in our household of faith.

Pastor: For what it symbolizes,

For the hopes it contains,

People: We welcome this font into our household of faith.

Pastor: Holy God,

Pour down your Spirit upon this font.

May it hold your blessed waters.

May it feed your faithful people.

May it bless us with happy memories

and hold us fast to your hopes.

May it signify a continuation of the family of faith which extends far outside these walls in both space and time.

Each time we see it, may we feel the inner tug of all that has been promised in these waters, whether they were poured here or elsewhere or even if only in someone’s heart.

We honor the journey of this font as it found its way to us and give thanks for our sister church in South Acton, MA in the many ways she sought to lay seeds in the ground even as her own congregation was scattered with the wind and her singular congregation is no more.

We give thanks for their generous hearts that they gifted this font to our congregation that it might continue to serve You.

May this font bring many smiles and joyful moments to this church.

May it signify the tie that binds when in times of trouble.

We pray all of this in your name, O God. AMEN

Blessing with oil – We bless you and set you into service in the name of our creator, son, and holy spirit. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer

Holy One,

The world is in need of prayers – not just our typical prayers for those who are physically ill or dying, but for an illness of the heart and a struggle of the soul.

There are too many who are grasping control and forgetting about compassion.

There are too many focused on greed and overlooking the simple rules about sharing that we learned even in the sandbox when we were young .

There are too many who are so focused on their own needs and desires that they are failing to see the suffering that exists, some of which they may have a hand in themselves.

God, today we pray for all people,

for all who need a softer heart,

a deeper conscience,

and wider understanding of your golden rules.

We pray for our own prejudices, frustrations, and anger.

We pray for others’ short sightedness, selfishness, and unwillingness to face the impact of their actions.

We pray that we all look to grow as individuals.

We pray that we are all willing to name our shortcomings.

We pray that we are all willing to grow.

We pray that we all are given strength to support the downtrodden,

voice to speak for the voiceless,

courage to stand up for their siblings.

We pray for changed hearts and transformed souls.

May your son’s teachings continue to teach us all,

and may he lead us into a world filled with deeper compassion and care

where we all look to each other’s care, even the stranger’s.

In this silence, let us lift up those who we know who need to be surrounded by and filled with God’s inexhaustible love and grace today:

Now let us pray in the words of your son –

Our Father / Mother / Creator*, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.

*Use the words you are most comfortable with or try something you haven’t before to see how that fits or pushes against your theology (understanding of God). Take some time to reflect on your experience.

Prayer of Illumination

Yesterday, we spoke literally about Illuminating the Word. Today, we are talking about illuminating the word in a more figurative sense; that is, making the reading of the Biblical text more clear and understandable.

I don’t remember growing up with a Prayer of Illumination as part of our liturgy; instead, I was introduced to this prayer when I was working in partnership with two other pastors as part of our joint planning. It was a prayer that Pastor Kathy used regularly in her liturgy and so we all agreed to use it in our planning.

Since then, I have found that this Prayer of Illumination is much like the ancient practice of Illuminating the Word through drawing. It focuses us in and gives proper attention to the importance of text. The Feasting on the Word Worship Companions include such a prayer in their liturgies and you can find them elsewhere as well. I have even used music to invite the congregation into focus before the text is read.

Today, as I continue to write my Lenten / Eastertide liturgies, I was inspired to focus on the Prayers of Illumination because I came by this quote in the book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger.

I came to learn that my questions about the disconnect between learning and living had a parallel in Wiesel’s critique of normative education. . . The gap between humanity’s supposed wisdom and the world he lived in troubled him . . . He had many painful questions to ask, but perhaps the one that drove him to become a teacher was this: Why didn’t learning and knowledge inoculate the German people against hatred?
Ariel Burger, Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom

This made me reflect on the disconnect that is often witnessed in Christians. What we say and proclaim our belief in often varies from our actions. And so I tried to carry this marrying of concept to action as I wrote my Prayers of Illumination today.

Here are several which you are welcome to use with citation:

God, Open our ears. Open our hearts. As your inspired word is spoken, let understanding unfold within us. AMEN

God, Sometimes we trust our eyes and our mind too much. Sometimes we let what we believe we know override what you know to be true. Help us to set down our preconceived perceptions and release our understanding of the world so that your truth may be revealed. Let us release our expectations so that you can show us your way. Let us open our heart and hear today’s sacred text. AMEN

Holy One, as we hear your word read, speak into our hearts. Add in what we particularly need to hear today. Draw our focus not out into a story of old, but in toward our innermost heart. Speak to us, O God. Speak so that we might hear. AMEN

Prepare our hearts, O God. Bring us to attention so that as we hear the scripture read, we do not just hear words spoken but also receive a message from you. Open us to your purpose and calling. AMEN

Author of words divine, In the words we are about to hear reveal yourself. Greet us. Meet us as we hear this story of old. AMEN

God of eternal light, Shine your rays through the words are about to hear. Like a laser, emblazon them upon our heart so that we might ponder them long after the reading has ended. AMEN

God, Etch the words we are about to hear upon my heart. Give me pause to return to them, remember them, and revive them as I have need. Your word is my strength and my guide. AMEN

FOR EASTER – On this most blessed day, O Lord, let us witness to your word. Let us join with the people of the past, the people around the globe, and the people of the future to celebrate the wondrous story of your son’s resurrection. Let our hearts receive the good news so that we may go out into the world and live it out. AMEN

Wondrous One, Wake my heart that it may hear the word about to be read. Let me gather it like a precious woven tapestry so that I may take it out and admire it again and again and again. AMEN

Radiant God, who placed the stars in the night sky and gives them the power to shine, as we hear today’s word read bring them your radiance as well. Let us hear them and know them in ways that bring forth awe, admiration, and a change in our way of being, AMEN

Holy One, Reveal your word to us today. Let us hear your inspired word in the depths of our soul. Let it unfold within us that we may be transformed having heard it. AMEN

God of word and witness, Wake us from our sleepy ways. Shake us from our passivity. Call us to attention. Prepare us to hear your holy word and thus to become part of your living embodied message in the world. AMEN

ASSCENSION SUNDAY – Holy God, As we hear this glorious word, let us not stand and gawk. Let this word move us, propel us, and inspire us. May your inspired word not close us in, but open us up to the needs of this world and the actions that you call us all to. May these words we hear spark our internal fire of compassion, love, and justice. AMEN

Teacher, Abba, Creator, As we prepare to hear your word, let us open our whole selves to the hearing of it. As your word is read, let us not just prepare to store it as a memory, but instead let it flow through us, changing us as it does. Let your word not fade from our memory, but become a part of us and who we are going forward. AMEN

PENTECOST SUNDAY –Holy Spirit, as you alight on our hearts today inscribe the words we are about to hear upon it. Let them not leave us when the reading is complete, but let them continue to form and inform us long after our time today. AMEN

Do you use a Prayer of Illumination in your worship? Do you find such a prayer helpful?

Please feel free to share any that you would like to for others to use below.

Economic Justice Sunday

This Sunday we are holding an Economic Justice Sunday as we kick-off our drive for our mission trip to Maine this summer to repair houses through MATE.

For that worship service, here is a Call to Worship and an Invocation:

CALL TO WORSHIP – Based Psalm 69

Pastor: Save us, O God. The water is up to our neck.

People: We are sinking with nowhere to place our feet.

Pastor: The water is deep

People: and our voice is being drowned out in the tumult.

Pastor: Hear, O God, our cumulative cries.

People: Respond to those in peril and send angels to their sides.

Pastor: If we are among the troubled, bring us peace and justice.

People: If we are among those already in peace, bring us purpose and perspective.

INVOCATION: –

Holy One, In our time together this morning, press open our hearts to the pain and pressures of life that others are bearing. Let us hear the cries of those being overwhelmed by the world around them. Shake us from complacency. Move us to action. Forgive us when we justify inequity. Inspire us to act as your emissaries in this world, and let us become a part of your healing balm. Be with us as we are awakened to and reminded of the harsh realities that exist in world today. AMEN