Category: Devo180

Be Part of the Solution (May 10, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The purpose of the worship of God is to help us see our dependence on God and the vast resources that God wants to lavish on our lives. (Ian S. Markham)

…Listening In…

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. (The Confession Sin)

…Filling Up…

Our seventh moment follows on the heels of our sixth, the Prayers of the People. The seventh moment is the Confession of Sin. Its location is no accident in the service of Holy Eucharist. We confess our sins very soon before we take communion. This gives us an opportunity to examine our consciences, ask for and accept forgiveness from God, and then take in the nourishment offered through Communion so that we can be strengthened to follow Christ more closely in our lives.

The Confession comes right after the Prayers of the People because the prayers can help us see where we have fallen short, where we have missed the mark, where we have separated ourselves from God. The Confession of Sin and the Absolution proclaimed on God’s behalf by the priest reconcile us to God, repairing the relationship that we have let slip but which God never abandons.

But there’s something more to the Confession of Sin. Notice in the words above that the Confession is entirely plural. When we confess during the service, we confess as a group. We confess our complicity in all of the big sins of the world that we are part of simply because we exist in a system that is broken. We may not be able right away to break out of that system, but by confessing our complicity we show our desire to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. The reconciliation that happens through the Confession and Absolution reconnects us to God, who is the source of the solution. Thus, we are able to pull ourselves just a little bit more out of the muck of the broken system of this world.

The more we confess this corporate sin, the more readily are we able to see the brokenness in the system for what it consists of – injustice, domination, disparity, fear, apathy. Why would we want to be part of that?

…Praying For…

Dear God, help me to look at the world through your eyes so that I can see a place of beauty that is scarred by humanity’s brokenness, of which I am a part; and then help me to break free of the system so that I can join you as part of the solution. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad to have the opportunity to worship you freely and to bring my weekend worship into my weekday life.

Prayer is Central (May 9, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The purpose of the worship of God is to help us see our dependence on God and the vast resources that God wants to lavish on our lives. (Ian S. Markham)

…Listening In…

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory in the world… Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another and serve the common good… Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory. (excerpt from Form IV of the Prayers of the People)

…Filling Up…

In the very center of our service, we come to our sixth moment – the Prayers of the People. I love the fact that these prayers fall in the middle because their location reminds us of the centrality of prayer in our lives. Of course, the entire service is prayer, but in the very center we find these prayers dedicated to God working in very specific facets of our lives and in the life of the world.

Indeed, the Prayers of the People follow a prescribed formula. We pray for “The Universal Church, its members, and its mission; the Nation and all in authority; the welfare of the world; the concerns of the local community; those who suffer and those in any trouble; and the departed.”

In each of these categories, we invite God to be present and to be at work. But these categories also function as the map for our own service. When we pray these prayers, we can ask ourselves how we are participating in God’s work in each area – in the church, in our country, in the world, in our local community, among those who are in trouble. In the final category we pray for those who have died to remind ourselves that our service to God and God’s relationship with us does not end when we pass away. Rather, the relationship becomes more perfect. This hope propels us to continue working to bring God’s reign ever closer here on earth.

Prayer is central to our lives. Anything we do in response to God’s movement is prayer – this includes kneeling at our bedsides, serving at the homeless shelter, singing songs of praise, sitting in silence just listening, and so many other responses that it would take a lifetime to list them all. The more we strive to be responsive to God’s call in our lives, the more we will be praying, and the more central will God be as we move through our days.

…Praying For…

Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as your know and love us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (from the Collects at the Prayers)

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad to have the opportunity to worship you freely and to bring my weekend worship into my weekday life.

Tradition (May 8, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The purpose of the worship of God is to help us see our dependence on God and the vast resources that God wants to lavish on our lives. (Ian S. Markham)

…Listening In…

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. (An excerpt from The Nicene Creed)

…Filling Up…

Our fifth moment in our worship service links us to all of the followers of Jesus Christ that have gone before us. We speak the words of the Creed (usually the “Nicene” Creed), thus setting ourselves in the tradition of our forebears who transmitted the faith to us. The church has survived for as long as it has because of this transmission of tradition. The church has gone through its difficult periods, its divisions, its dark times, but it has persisted, flourished even.

The Nicene Creed was compiled through the work of the First Ecumenical Council held in the year 325 at Nicaea in modern day Turkey. A main topic of discussion at the meeting had to do with exactly who Jesus was. Was he, as the Second Person of the Trinity, of one being with the Father, who is the First Person of the Trinity? Or was he just a really swell guy, the best person ever, but still a being created by God and thus not one with God? The latter view was pretty popular, but there was a big problem with it: if Jesus were just the best person ever, then worshiping him was idolatry.

So the Council promulgated the former view – that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was of one being with the Father, who with the Holy Spirit was one God in a Trinity of persons. It wasn’t as cut and dried as these two paragraphs make it out to be, but that’s the gist of what happened.

The important thing to remember for our discussion is that we are inheritors of this tradition. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and so on and so forth. Whenever we say these words, we echo the billions of people who have said them before, thus linking us with the great cloud of witnesses that supports us during our worship.

…Praying For…

Dear God, thank you for guiding your Church through all the changes and chances of this life, even as we are imperfect in our devotion and our action. Help me to pass on the faith to my descendants as it was passed on to me. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad to have the opportunity to worship you freely and to bring my weekend worship into my weekday life.

Live the Good News (May 7, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The purpose of the worship of God is to help us see our dependence on God and the vast resources that God wants to lavish on our lives. (Ian S. Markham)

…Listening In…

Jesus did many other things as well. If all of them were recorded, I imagine the world itself wouldn’t have enough room for the scrolls that would be written. (John 20:25; context)

…Filling Up…

Our fourth moment of our typical worship service is really several moments stitched together. In a standard service, we read several items from the Bible, and then a preacher delivers a sermon inspired by something in one of the readings. Rather than giving the sermon its own moment, we weave it together with the readings because the two shouldn’t be separated. We call the readings “The Word of the Lord,” and we hope to hear a message that is a word from the Lord. Faithful preaching is a mysterious mixture of study, prayer, listening, and proclaiming, all wrapped in trust that the Holy Spirit is present in the spoken word so that the lowly words of the preacher might be elevated into lofty inspiration from God.

But let’s back up a step and look at the readings. In a typical service, we read a lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures (often called the “Old” Testament), a portion of one of 150 psalms (which were basically the hymnal to the ancient Hebrews), a lesson from the New Testament (usually part of a letter written to a church or a person), and a lesson from one of the four accounts of the Gospel. We bring the Gospel into the midst of the people as an example for what the Gospel calls us to do; that is, to bring the Good News (which is what “Gospel” means) out into the world through our proclamation, our service, and our love.

The sermon follows the readings not only because its purpose is to elucidate them, but also because the sermon shows that the Word of God is still alive. The sermon takes the passages from the Bible, which have been set for nearly 2,000 years, and shows what happens when the Holy Spirit encounters us through the text. In each sermon, the Holy Spirit breathes new life, new interpretation, new interactions between us and the Word. Every sermon, therefore, is a life-giving engagement with God’s Word, with God’s Good News.

Thus, our fourth moment is about meeting God in the ancient text, which is just as alive now as it was 2,000 years ago. Because it is alive, it can seep into our beings and dwell within us, animating us to be God’s messengers to a world sorely in need of good news.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son Jesus continues to move in our lives and continues to write his good news on the vellum of our hearts; help me to be one of the scrolls that he is writing, that the world may be filled with your message of love and hope. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad to have the opportunity to worship you freely and to bring my weekend worship into my weekday life.

Rejoice Always (May 4, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God. (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

…Listening In…

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. (The Gloria)

…Filling Up…

Our third moment in our 12 part series follows directly after the second moment. For most of the church year (excluding Advent and Lent), the familiar words above follow the Collect for Purity. They make up what is known as the “Gloria” (short for “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” which is just the first line in Latin). For much of the church’s history the Gloria actually came near the end of the service, rather than near the beginning. The Gloria does good work in either place – either as a culmination of our praise or an introduction to it. But the current Episcopal Book of Common Prayer puts it at the beginning, so it is in that location that we’ll discuss it.

At the beginning of the service, the Gloria helps us to remember the first reason why we worship. We worship because God’s very being draws praise from us. Our fundamental nature as children of God includes the instinct to worship, and when we come together on Sunday mornings, that instinct plays out – not because God needs to be flattered or appeased, but because God’s love causes us to desire to praise.

But this praise doesn’t end at the conclusion of the Gloria or at the conclusion of the service. By praising God with these words week in and week out, we exercise our praising muscles, which helps us to live by Paul’s instruction to “rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5). We say the Gloria each Sunday whether or not we feel much like praising God, whether or not there is much to rejoice about. When we praise even if we don’t feel much life praising, we are not being hypocrites. Rather, we are acknowledging a truth about life – that even in our darkest days, there is always a glimmer of light; that even when we are being crushed by the weight of dire circumstances, there is always some small reason for joy. Sometimes just a sliver, but that sliver is a tether to the God who never abandons us and will patiently wait until we are ready to praise again.

…Praying For…

Dear God, because of who you are you cause praise to spring to my lips. Help me to notice your presence in my life so that I can be reminded to rejoice always in every situation, even when the joy is so hard to find. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, ready to order my life around your movement in it and hopeful that you will continue to show me the way.

Invitation (May 3, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God. (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

…Listening In…

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

…Filling Up…

The prayer above in the “Listening In” section is called the “Collect for Purity,” and at a typical Episcopal worship service this is the first prayer of the day, following an opening greeting that varies with the season. A “collect” (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable) does just what you think it does. It collects (emphasis on the second syllable) the themes of the day into one prayer that acts as something of a thesis statement for that particular day’s worship. There is a “Collect of the Day” that changes every week, which comes a minute or two later in the service.

But this “Collect for Purity” doesn’t change. It is the same week in and week out. The Collect for Purity, then, is less about collecting the themes of the day and more about collecting ourselves to be ready to worship. With this collect, we open ourselves up to God’s action in our lives. We invite God into the space that God already inhabits, thus giving ourselves a better chance at noticing God’s presence.

The first line of the collect says three true things about God. By addressing God as the one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, we ready ourselves to open our hearts. The beginning of this prayer helps us take our masks off, helps us take our guard down so that we can let God in.

The second part of the prayer asks God to send the Holy Spirit to inspire our worship so that we can love more perfectly, thereby “magnifying” God’s holy name. When you magnify, you makes something bigger and thus clearer. That’s what our worship does. When God opens our hearts, we can discover just how big and how close God is to us.

That’s the Collect for Purity, our second moment of worship. So with that, let’s pray it again.

…Praying For…

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, ready to order my life around your movement in it and hopeful that you will continue to show me the way.

Transformation (May 2, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God. (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

…Listening In…

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “ All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. 25 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. (Matthew 16:24-25; context)

…Filling Up…

Today, we begin our worship series with the first of twelve “moments” that happen during a standard Episcopal communion service. We’ll look at them in order, and although we won’t have the space to hit every piece of the service, the twelve we will look at will help us order our lives. So without further ado, the first “moment” is pretty much the first thing we do when we enter the church.

At the head of the procession an acolyte carries the cross. Have you ever wondered why we do that? There are a couple of reasons and the most obvious one can keep us from seeing the less obvious one. The obvious one is that the cross is the most recognizable Christian symbol of all – and Jesus tells us to pick up our crosses and follow him. What better way to remember that command than to carry one during our church services?

But the less obvious reason for carrying the cross into and out of the service has to do with what the cross represents. The cross is a made specifically to kill someone in a very painful, very public way. The Romans would line the main streets leading to cities with crosses to remind those they had conquered about the consequences of going against Rome. Thus the cross was a means to induce fear, which led to domination and control.

But Jesus changed all that. While the Romans continued to put people to death using crosses after Jesus rose from the dead, the trajectory of the cross as a symbol has arced toward freedom, love, hope, salvation and the constancy of relationship. These are the utter opposites of the Roman definition of the cross. The keyword here is “transformation.” Jesus transformed the cross from an instrument of death into an instrument of life.

We carry the cross into and out of church services to remind ourselves that when we are in worship, we too are participating in a transformative action. Worshiping God changes us, transforms us into better lovers, better servants, better people. And the cross is a symbol of that transformation.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son died on the cross, but through his rising again he took the symbol of death and changed it into a symbol of life. Help me, in my walk with him, always to choose life, that I may live a full and abundant life in you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, ready to order my life around your movement in it and hopeful that you will continue to show me the way.

Three Functions of Worship (May 1, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God. (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

…Listening In…

The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. (Acts 2:42-44; context)

…Filling Up…

For the next two and a half weeks, we are going to look at what happens during a standard church service – well, at least a standard one in the Episcopal tradition, the one to which I belong. We are going to look at some of the whys behind our actions and our words. I think this is important because of the third function of our Sunday worship.

Wait. The “third” function, you say. Oh, right, now I have to tell you numbers One and Two. Well, the first function of our worship is to give glory to God. The actual act of worshiping our creator is central to our…well…worship. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my favorite Greek words is the word for “worship.” It literally translates as “to bend toward.” When we worship God, we are like trees that bend toward the light in order more fully to drink in their nourishment. We praise God because God draws praise out of us, not because God needs the adoration. We praise because God’s very presence causes us to bend towards God.

The second function is the gathering of the community for support and building up of one another in the power of the Spirit. Again, I know you’ve heard this before, but it always bears repeating. “Church” is not a building. It’s a gathering of people who come together to worship God.

These first two functions of weekly worship are wonderful, but this third function of our liturgy is quite important, too. The third function is that the week in week out service gives us something around which to structure our lives. Each moment in the Eucharistic liturgy points to a way in which can live out each day. Over the next twelve days, we’ll look at these moments and see how they inform our daily walks with Christ.

…Praying For…

Dear God, we are unworthy to praise you, but, even as our praise falls short, you lift it up and sanctify by your grace. Help me to continue to worship you all the days of my life, in both my words and deeds. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, ready to order my life around your movement in it and hopeful that you will continue to show me the way.

 

*I have integrated into my ministry much of the content of the following three weeks from a wonderful little book by my seminary dean, the Rev. Ian S. Markham, called Liturgical Life Principles, which I recommend to you.

Therefore, Go (April 30, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

This is the final Devo of the 10 part series from the last few weeks. It got pushed to today because I had a glitch last Monday that through everything off by one day. We’ll be back on track tomorrow. –Adam

…Opening To…

A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. (St. Athanasius)

…Listening In…

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” (Matthew 28:16-20; context)

…Filling Up…

Today is the last day of our ten day look at Jesus’ Resurrection appearances. We close as Matthew does, with Jesus’ final words in the Gospel. Notice that his very last words: “I will be with you every day,” echo the name that the angel Gabriel gives to him: Immanuel, which mean “God with us.” Thus, God’s presence bookends the Gospel – that’s pretty cool.

But leaving that tidbit, let’s talk about the word “therefore.”

Matthew’s account of the Gospel comes to a close, Jesus says the above words to the disciples. By the power, by the authority of Jesus, the disciples are sent out. And by the work of the disciples down through the centuries empowered by Christ, we too hear these words, we too are sent out. Jesus’ authority spurs us to go, make, and baptize. Indeed, Jesus is the author, the source of our going, our making, and our baptizing.

Scholars call this the “Great Commission,” and within this commission is also great warning. Jesus says, “Therefore, go.” The therefore makes our commissioning contingent on recognizing that everything we do because of God’s call in our lives generates from the authority given to Jesus. The day, the hour, the minute we start to think that we are ministering to people by our own authority is the time we need to take a step back, fall to our knees, and ask God for forgiveness. Paradoxically, the better we get at following Jesus, the easier we fall into the trap of failing to recognize the authority of Jesus prompting and empowering our actions.

But when we come to God in prayer or when we come to the table to receive communion, we come with empty hands and dry mouths. We come reminded that our gifts, like the gifts of bread and wine, have their source in God alone. We come not trusting in our own righteousness, but in God’s manifold and great mercies. As the body and blood of Christ nourish us, the power and authority of Christ compel us to go, make, and baptize; to trust, hope, and believe; to love, serve, and proclaim.

So go out and by your love and your loving witness, make disciples – and remember that Jesus is with you always, to the end of the ages.

…Praying For…

Dear God, I was with you while I was still in my mother’s womb and I will be with you when I pass through death into new life. Help me to remember that your presence abides in my life, and help me act out of that knowledge every day. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you raised your Son from the dead and showed me that nothing in all of creation can separate me from your love.

Two Witnesses (April 27, 2012)

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. (St. Athanasius)

…Listening In…

With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. But Jesus met them and greeted them. They came and grabbed his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that I am going into Galilee. They will see me there.” (Matthew 28:8-10; context)

…Filling Up…

Today is the second to last day of our celebration of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances, and today we move to the Gospel according to Matthew to wrap up. Right before the verses above, the women have gone to the tomb and found the stone rolled away. An angel tells them: “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you.”

And then the women hurry away to tell the disciples, but they run into Jesus instead. And he says almost the exact same thing the angel did a minute before. So, why the repeat dialogue? Why have the angel’s monologue and Jesus’ repetition so close together? Could it possibly be because what they told the women is so incredulous that they needed to hear it twice? Perhaps, the readers of the Gospel needed a “come again” moment. Didn’t quite catch that the first time. Come again?

Or perhaps Matthew is playing by the rules that he sets on Jesus’ lips ten chapters before. Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and correct them when you are alone together. If they listen to you, then you’ve won over your brother or sister. But if they won’t listen, take with you one or two others so that every word may be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:16-17).

Matthew uses the angel’s and Jesus’ testimony as proof of the Resurrection that would essentially hold up in court (the two witnesses thing). The thing is – they might have been the first to declare the Resurrection, but they certainly weren’t the last. God calls us to be witnesses to the Resurrection even now.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son rose from the dead to show us that death would never again have power over us. Help me to proclaim the grace of the eternal relationship that you yearn to have with each of us through the power of the Resurrection. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you raised your Son from the dead and showed me that nothing in all of creation can separate me from your love.