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A prayer for those serving others

"It is in giving that we receive..." St. Francis of Assisi

God bless those that serve,
Your spirit flows through them
Giving grace to those they are with
Like a mountain spring there source is pure and caring

Be with those that serve, even when difficulties arise
for you are in the darkness too
providing love to those who have seen little
giving compassion to those who have been judged harshly

Be with those that serve, especially when they are laughing
For when we serve, we tire
But a jolly laugh restores the soul

Be with those that serve, in unimaginable ways
For in the giving of ourselves
Your spirit fills our being
Making us whole

God be with those who serve...for they have seen your face and said, "God is Good"

The taming of God

God has been tamed, it is abundantly clear now.
He is nestled safe within the walls of our churches.
Safe is how we like God to be, safe and right where we know he is.
We can go about our days arriving safely in church once or maybe twice a week,
and there God is waiting to pat us on the back.
"Good job my child, you have done well, just try and do better here."

How boring can it get?

A God that is really engaged in humanity is out there among us each day. Our companion, our friend, our coach, our challenger, but always pushing us to grow.
Good friends say they pray each day and all the time. God likes this cause he knows what you think. But God is talking too, listen and it mysteries will arrive.

As a Christian...Jesus is the ultimate un-taming of God, the unraveling, the one who said, "Free God from these temple walls, let all know that God is everywhere. Let all know that God is here for all and not bound by rules."

A thought experiment for you today: Consider if God is real or not to you?

If God is real to you, imagine the life of one who does not see God as real? There is nothing wrong with a life lived with no God, it is when we lack humbleness and strength that we do not live.

If you do not believe in God, imagine a life of one who sees God as real? It is no less to imagine a powerful force affecting our lives, for we or finite and we want to imagine beyond that. There is nothing wrong with a life lived guided by some seemingly unimaginable force, as long as it is a life filled with virtue.

A Release from Sin Theology this Christmas

Lookin in the mirror
wondering if it is true
You can feel the brokenness they say is inside of you,

When you were dancing down the street you felt so free,
Now you feel stuck like the roots of an old tree have rooted you to the ground un-naturally,

What could you have possibly done to feel this way?

You were innocent as you embarked this way.
Now the guilt is rushing in,
and all you see is how you SINNED, what SIN, WHAT SIN!!?!!

When suddenly you trip on that old book,
and you take a moment for a look,
As each page turns you realize the depth of human demise,
of war and death and ignorance.

Then you come to a narrative, a grand story
About a child, a blessed one.
Who said to us all - "Let this feeling of guilt be done:
I remove you greatest fear, so you may know that love is near.
And as you go to sleep this night, know this:
I will be with you and stay by your side, so that if fear returns I may shine the the light again.
For sin is but a controlling thing, be free to go beyond.
Do not let these old words bind, but instead use them to free the blind.

Some may say the end has come, to them I say it is all but done.
Live this day your daily bread,
I pray that you are always fed,
but do not live by bread alone.
For it cannot role back the stone.
My friend do not despair, we all wear underwear,
Be free to see the light that is:
Our Father, Our Mother, Creator, God.

Do not fear that all life is,
is a fancy magic show.

Feel the reality instead, that which you know:

That love will wipe things clean as snow."

The world is waking up

As a student of Theology I am seeing a dangerous trend in modern religious institutions, fear. Religion as designed in the middle ages was designed to preserve knowledge and in many ways it helped preserve the knowledge of culture. However, in its own fear the church of the middle ages committed some of the greatest atrocities in history.

The fear today is based in a survivalist mindset. A mindset that we have to preserve the way it has always been done because if we do not we lose the values that have allowed us to live.

The truth however is that that those values are in each of us, they are the divinity that each of us possesses. It is these values that are being proved so valuable to those that are developing things like the "The Secret." This piece of truth is being neglected by the churches and to be true they will fail if they do not wake up to it. Perhaps it is time for them to fail, or perhaps it is time for them to rebirth who they are and become a changing and growing force in the world.

Blessings on your journey my friends,

Tyler

To get lost in prayer

Do you remember the days when play was all there was?  No memory or worry if the calendar  was full or you had each step done.  Your only job was to rise up from slumber, clean yourself up(only if they made you), and to find what fascinated you next.  Well the truth is, that never stopped.  Instead, you chose to create those other crazy parts of life.  Relax everyday let your mind wander in prayer, in silence, in song, or in senses.  Remember always you are a CHILD of God and that life is your gift to do with what you please.

To Notice Mountains

The mountains draw near as I drive along the road,

ever present as a reminder of where I go,

rising slowly like a lost memory,

each detail slowly becoming a reality,

remember everyday that life is there,

for you to approach and notice each detail,

you can draw near if you want to see the truth,

for the universe will go on no matter what.

Time for some major ritual change...

For many of us in the church we all know the continuing plaguing(no kidding) question that is upon us...Where are the young people?  I began to think about that and I don't think it is the right question.  The real question is...where has the church gone that it no longer has anything to offer the young people?  

I recently took part in a meditation retreat and I noticed something...every aged person was present.  Obviously it is not a matter of a lack of interest that young people do not engage the spiritual.  Instead, it must be a lack of the current institutions providing anything that truly allows people to link to the spiritual.  It is time to change that by implementing and recalling our ritual past to create places for all to worship, pray, meditate and to engage the divine and themselves.  

Thoughts

I sit glass in hand,

pondering imagination,

the beautiful mind

that brings joy,

fear, anxiety,

and exhilaration.

As I taste my drink

I feel my spirit nourished

by the simple impulse of the sweet flavor.

Somehow that simple act

touches my piece of the divine.

Sweet, sour, sin, and flower

oh...the senses to which I delight,

all because my mind and soul are one.

Financial Wealth - Why does faith focus on that?

Recently I notice how so many churches are focused on numbers, specifically financial ones. If I have learned anything from my financial experience is that the more you wine about lack of something, the less you will receive. Progressive communities of faith are in a crisis because they have failed to be visionary, to reach out, or to be risky. In order for the progressive church to find new ways to change we must focus on the gifts we do have. By focusing on these gifts we will see new ministry forming and transforming the world. In doing this we will also start to see money, because people support things that they believe in and that are transforming the world for the better.

Progressive church communities can no longer drool over the past. A past in which if you built it they would come, no they will not come anymore unless they are invited. Go out and invite them, and stop "mortgaging the future for the sake of the past" (1).



1. Rev. Dick Storment, District Superintendent, Yellowstone Annual Conference of the UMC, June 2009, www.yacumc.org

Clergy in this new world are not Bible experts or people that know God in perfect ways.  Instead clergy are to be the people who can tell stories, engage the imagination, ask us to think beyond ourselves, to help us engage the divine mystery.  These are the people the church must now train, not the preservers of scripture, but the "mid-wives of culture"(1) to whom we will look to help us dream a new world.  That is why the message of Christ creating a new kingdom on earth is a great image for Christianity to embrace, and I encourage other faiths to look to what images they will use to embrace this new change.

1-Dr. Vincent Harding in a lecture to "Christianity in the Modern World" Iliff School of Theology Fall 2008

The place of the Church in the culture

"Rethink Church" the new marketing slogan for the United Methodist Church.  The young people of the church hope it is not just a slogan and not just rethinking.  We hope that it is re-creating the church.  For the church has more to offer the world now at a time that we need peacemakers, community builders, and we need miracle workeres.  Young people and the next generation of leadership, young and old, are calling on the church to make a change.  Get out into the community and provide the catalyst to change our world for the better.  For it is through us that the kingdom is made possible.  

Grace and Enthusiastic Peace

Where is God today?

God my God, where are you today?

Are you in the mountain, or in the valley?

With the poor, or rich?

Hidden in the corridors of power, or in the homes of the powerless?

As I look to find you I see where you have been.  

Changing peoples hearts to care for the world.

How do I catch up with you?

To really spend time with you?

Instead of just seeing where you have been.

I am a young person, and I pray that I may have a moment with you.

Can you please set some time aside?

So that I may walk beside

and know you more.

Psalm 152

By The Psalmist Amundson aka Tanpants

Hashem we have heard of the magical signal the brought instant knowledge

The signal you gave to our fore-bearers, aka us here in this class last week

A divine spark that you demonstrated to the people

A sign that you had truly blessed us

We search for this signal

Oh Hashem my god bring back magically the signal

Make us wise once more

For it is through the corporate thought of endless electronic signals that we find peace

We find contact outside of this one place in which or bodies are trapped to be most affirming to our small lives

To think that we may not be able to change our mood online, leaves us trapped in this sense of melancholy

What must we do to prove our worth of the magic wireless?

Must we grovel to the IT lords, or will you bring it back on your own.

For we truly would rather find peace in your name then in an email from IT.

Oh wireless come back, Oh Hashem connect us again.

To Travel Beyond

For when we landed a man on the moon we dazzled at our own brilliance

All at once we forgot the cradle where we had come from

That God created a world full of life for us to be a part of

Yes there is a joy to travel beyond, but that we care for it as our home

Thankful

As we consider a season in which we have a life of plenty.  It is a time we remember that plenty is not something had by all at anytime in history.  This holiday season we must ask ourselves if we truly have dreamed big enough to think of a world where all have plenty.  The possibility of a world where people feel they can make the best of what they are given is long overdue.  It is my hope that you can share a dream of a better world sometime during this holiday season.  Realize it is the only way that we can hope for a better tomorrow.  Dream big. 

A message

Amos 5:18-24 (NRSV)

¹⁸Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!
   Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light;
¹⁹   as if someone fled from a lion,
   and was met by a bear;
or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,
   and was bitten by a snake.
²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,
   and gloom with no brightness in it? 

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals,
   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²²Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,
   I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
   I will not look upon.
²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;
   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,
   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 

 

A Message to the Church

To the church who is crying out in the wilderness, “Oh where are the young?”  

To a church that creates self worth around the amount of grey hair in the pew.  

To a church that says young people are of value 

and yet do not empower the disenfranchised voices of the world.  

You beg God that your institution, 

the one to which have dedicated your life, 

may not die. 

You beg for a new generation to see the beauty and love of God.  

I pray that you recognize what this next generation begs for:

The new generation is avoiding your pews not because they are too hard, 

but because their form has not been challenged.  

The words from your pulpit have instead made the pews soft, 

made the people comfortable, 

and made our God tame.  

Our God, Our Jesus, Our Spirit are not docile.  They are ALIVE and they are FREE.  

Young people want to live, 

they want to engage in the dialectic of the divine.  

The dialogue of how to change the world in which we live, 

to create a kingdom of God.

They want what YOU WANT

To live with the image of a new world

To experience a world that creates opportunity for ALL GOD’s PEOPLE

Hope

As we walk through our lives we must continue to search for what hope there is.  We have a duty to not only search, but to create hope for others.  In our daily lives look for places to create hope for others and in their eyes hope will develop for you.  For God knows that in others hope we create our own hope.  

Take a break

Can you imagine a day where all you have to do is relax?  Relaxation in which you feel no pressure, no guilt, and can face the next day with the most energy possible.  The value of a Sabbath is amazingly powerful in a human life.  Learning to relax as well as we work and play is a skill that our ancestors found and respected.  I am not saying we need to halt all society one day a week, but learn how to halt all things that make you worry and stress one day a week.  In this peace we hear our inner thoughts, we hear God, and we can hear our neighbors in need.  Take time for yourself, take a Sabbath and know that you are able to relax completely.

Grace and Enthusiastic Peace

Finding Peace in any Moment

In our constantly faster moving society it is important to step back and breathe from time to time. In this relaxing we will notice God around us. I realize this post is a lot like yesterday, but in worldly stress it is very important to continually remind yourself of God's peace.

I pray for each of you a moment of peace in your day.