Tag: prayer

It takes a long time to create Bethlehem

This week’s mid-week meditation led to a powerful insight:

it takes a long time to create Bethlehem.

There is so much going on in the world, it came seem like a frivolous waste to gather and simply create art, but I have found this creative time to, in fact, be more important than ever. It is in these peaceful settings that we can take a moment to take stock of all that we have seen and heard and begin to try to understand our place and our calling within it all.

This week, when we gathered, our theme was mosaics. Given our time frame, we created our mosaics with paper, and I limited our paper to just solid colors. I offered the option of some pre-drawn blackline masters that I gathered from the internet and also had plain paper available. I tried to give people as little direction as possible because, like in each of our other weeks, the purpose is the reflection on our thoughts and the process more than the product that is produced.

People always find our time too short and these activities could easily be done on retreat in multi-hour blocks.

This was my creation based on Rublev’s picture of The Trinity. I was really caught by the idea that each of us have the capacity to be part of the trinity; thus the non-identification of the personalities. I also recognized how we need to be mindful of how we interact with one another. Even with our best intentions we sometimes press into each other’s space.

To help us be in the right mindset to create, we began our time together by putting our hands in the form of a bowl and filling our bowls with all the dread, frustration, anger, and worry that we brought in with us. After gathering it together in our own imaginary bowls, we placed the bowls below the cross in the center of the table and agreed that if stressful thoughts came our way we would give them over God through a symbolic gesture of hanging our worry on the cross. Once we released the troubles we came in with, we offered a prayer and lit our candle. Then I read a poem called Mosaic by Lily Whitelock (click here to read the whole poem) and offered a quote by Anita Krizzan. We were particularly enamored with the words of Lily’s third verse,

“Every word I know somebody else has told me.

Every smile I give someone else has shared.”

“We are mosaics. Pieces of light, love, history stars . . .Glued together with magic and music and words.

Anita Krizzan

We then created for half an hour, gathering back together to discuss and reflect on the process. There were many insights that individuals had about how they created, what they created, why they created; and there was one that took all our breath away. As one congregant shared this work:

She explained that she didn’t have enough time and would be taking this home to finish. She somewhat flippantly said,

“If you didn’t know, it takes a long time to create Bethlehem.” MC

When she said that, my heart stopped. It was a reminder to us all that within the struggle and frustration that we are all feeling these day, we need to remember that to create takes time, energy, perseverance, patience, and vision especially when your vision is as complicated and simplistic as love, justice, and compassion.

We closed with a simple prayer and all went out into the world with a little more hope and with clearer understandings of where we might fit into the larger picture and how our gifts and talents might be used.

If you decide to try to create, I’d love to see what you make. Please post in the comments.

Holy One, Sometimes challenge comes not in complexity but in simplicity. As your co-creators in life, help us to step back and take stock on that which is essential. Encourage us to release that which gets in the way of your vision of heaven on earth being made real in the world. Call us into partnership with you so that together we might together create a peaceful, loving, and just world. Remind us of the time when your son was born in a simple stable. Let us remember its simplicity and yet also his power to transform the world. May you use us to do the same way. AMEN

Psalm inspired liturgy

Sometimes it can be a challenge to write liturgy from week to week, so sometimes I need to look elsewhere for inspiration. Sometimes I find liturgy that others have written that I can use (I especially appreciate https://re-worship.blogspot.com/ ). Other times, I reach into the Biblical text, especially the Psalter. Because the Psalms were originally sung, the liturgy gathered from the Psalms practically writes itself. Here, for example, is the Call to Worship and Invocation that I am using this week, which is drawn from Psalm 18. One Psalm can often be the inspiration for a multitude of prayers, litanies, and the like. The Psalms are like a well that is fed by an unending aquafer.

Call to Worship

Pastor:  In the Lord I take refuge.

People:  God is my deliverer.

Pastor: God is my rock and my fortress.

People: God is my safe place.

Pastor: In the Lord, I put my hope and my trust.

People: God is my protector.

ALL:  I will praise God forever more.

Invocation

O God, my protector, you are with me in all that I do: from my waking to my sleeping.  You watch over me and seek to guide me.  Today, in this time, wake me up so that I may witness your work and begin to see the world around me with more clarity.  AMEN

An extra special resource as it pertains to Psalmody is Richard Bruxvoort Cooligan’s Psalm Immersion. His musical creations from the Psalms can be used as background for meditation, for musical prayer responses, or for deepening your perspective on a specific psalm. I encourage you to check his work out.

NOTE: You are welcome to use the liturgy in worship or educational settings. Please cite the origin sources.

Making Space in a Cluttered Brain

As a pastor, so much of what I do requires me to be focused. I generate an incredible amount of material each week for worship, special programing, workshops, and other activities. Sometimes my brain starts to feel like the pong game on the early Atari video games (Yes, I am dating myself, but I figure you can kind of tell that from the picture.). In order to help myself keep in the creative zone, I need to give my brain time to quiet down to think. Simple repetition allows my brain to make space to gather the thoughts that need a little time to percolate or go by too fast to gather. Recently, I have found that crocheting has become a way to offer my brain this time.

I used to crochet years ago, but haven’t in some 25 years or so. I decided to take it up again when I took my current call so that I could find a way to connect with our prayer shawl knitting team and meet some new friends at a local art shop in town.

This is actually the second of my creations. The first one already shipped out for a recent new arrival into the world, the child of one of former Girl Scouts. I extended the pattern of this prayer shawl so that someone could wrap themselves comfortably in it and feel the palpable presence of God’s love around them. I have yet to know exactly where I will send it, but I trust I will know where it should go when the time is right.

It is a good thing that this project found its logical conclusion because I have been feeling called to do another baby blanket for a new cousin who was set to be on his way. I picked up the yarn last week, and ironically as I started my first three rows on the blanket, I received a text that announced the arrival of little Theo into the world. They will really have to call this one a prayer blanket, because I will need to pray to complete it before this little one graduates from college.

Who knows how long this activity will continue offering the relaxation that I need. I know I can’t do anything too complicated and am not really looking to improve, but I am enjoying this venture into creative compassion and self-care. Who knows what projects are yet to come.

What do you do to clear the cobwebs and calm the neural pathways?

What does Tuesday mean to you?

For some, Tuesday brings to mind Tacos. For others, it may mean dance class or Pilates. Perhaps for some, it is payday or the day they regularly go visit their parents. For me and for members of my church community, Tuesday has meant prayer night.

Each Tuesday since the beginning of Covid (circa 2020), I have posted this or a similar post on my personal FaceBook page and that of the church I am serving. Each Tuesday evening I then open a Zoom room where several of us gather to have a moment of devotion and hold the prayers that we have gathered for that day.

Some people may find this an incredibly futile act given the enormity of the issues that people are dealing with, but I believe that our gathering and our regularity makes a big impact on the world. It may not be a “cure”, but simply our gathering and sharing of the prayers give the petitioners the comfort of knowing someone else cares. I think it also softens the heart of those who hold these prayers.

None of us knows exactly what prayers do. They surely do not always work as we expect them to, but that is not to say that they are ineffective or unneeded. In fact, Soren Kierkegaard, Danish theologian and philosopher, is reported to have said, “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” To some degree, I have witnessed this first hand in the prayer time that we hold each Tuesday evening. The people in the group have even begun carrying around pads to jot down prayers as they come by them; so that they can be remembered and upheld in the group. We listen and remember those who have asked for prayers over time. Our hearts become more open and more supple to the issues of others and definitively to each other.

This little 1 hour gathering has become the consistent beat in my life for almost 5 years now. Occasionally now I even get a text or private message from people who are afraid that perhaps they may miss the time to get their prayers in and so they send a note to me privately rather than waiting for the “official” post. This makes me realize how much others have come to expect and to appreciate this rhythm..

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” She surely did not mean this within the context of a prayer group, but I do think it applies.

It is Tuesday, do you have a prayer that you would like held?

If you ever have a prayer that you would like held, I invite you to email me with it or post it below and you can trust that it will be held and lifted up each Tuesday evening.