I offer this weekly #LetUsPray as a way to stay anchored amidst the turmoil of the day. Paid subscribers have access to liturgical resources and sermon prompts based on the week's readings from The Revised Common Lectionary and/or The Narrative Lectionary.
How is it almost June?
I was having a conversation with someone this week about activism, faith, and the church. We talked about the need for our actions to be rooted in and grounded in an understanding of our faith. Elements of our faith will shift and change over time, but for people of faith, we will make the strongest impact if our actions and our activities are rooted in our beliefs.
Yes, this seems pretty basic, but I have found that when I am feeling a little bit off-kilter, I need to stop, take a breath, and ask myself why I am doing what I am doing. Maybe the disorientation is justified, but sometimes it becomes clear that I have bought into motivations that are not worthy of my energy, time, or resources. That feeling inside is the Spirit poking and prodding to check myself.
This conversation, combined with the reality that there is a month of self-inflicted chaos ahead of me with our family Bay Area move and my move to Pasadena to start my time as the p/t Transitional Pastor at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
What I am going to do is to share my "Statement of Faith," or as I titled it in Everything Good about God is True: Choosing Faith, my "Faith Montage." I am sure you will not agree with everything, but I hope some of these passages will speak to your soul.
If you're interested, I am in the process of litanizing (Is that even a word?) the entire montage and creating slides for folks to use. Also, if you are a Paid Subscriber, you can get a PDF of the entire montage (See below) for personal or congregational use.
I begin with the belief that, in life and in death, I belong to God.
I am Known by God #LetUsPray
Let us pray —
I choose to believe that, in life and in death, I belong to God. God stirs my soul.
In the morning, life-giving first breath fills my lungs. God stills my spirit.
In the evening, the calm of the night flows through my body. God moves me.
The Holy One beckons me forth, through bands of light, into coves of darkness, woven into rainbows, and amid the in-between and unknown—
All the while, with every tender breath, I am reminded of God’s hoping, yearning, and dreaming that I grow into all I am intended to become.
I am GROUNDED in the presence of God.
God knows me. God sees me. God loves me. And that is enough.
God is with me. God has been with me. God will always be with me.
Through crawling minutes and blurred decades, mundane whispers and shouts of magnificence, awkward encounters and an impassioned embrace, brisk breezes, warm skies, cool fog, living deserts, flourishing forests, living water, the farm, the field, the town, the suburb, the streets, and the city, during protests, parties, feasts, and funerals, at coffee shops, clubs, stages, pitches, courts, corners, classrooms, playgrounds, porches, barbershops, dining tables, couches, screens, and every unexpected holy space:
Through and in it all, God is known to my soul, and I am reminded that I am known by God.
In writing liturgy, I attempt to be economical with words while addressing the events of the day in ways that help people find grounding in their faith. For readings, I refer to the Vanderbilt Revised Common Lectionary(RCL) and The Narrative Lectionary from The Working Preacher(NL). Paid Subscribers should please feel free to use any of the liturgical resources with or without attribution.
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