Category : Evotionals

Evotional – December 11 – The importance of patience and waiting

During this season of the year, we take time at the beginning of worship to light the Advent candles and to say…

We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.  Advent means coming.  We are preparing ourselves for the days

When the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. 

Let us walk in the light of the Lord. 

It’s a mantra within the Church that we are a waiting people: waiting for Christmas when Christ is born, waiting for God’s rule to come on earth to right the many ways this world is not as it should be.  Steeped in the language of waiting, I was struck by a similar sentiment in a totally different context as I was re-reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to A Young Poet.  In advising his poetic pen pal not to rush the creative process, he again affirms the importance of patience and waiting. 

In this there is no measuring with time.  A year doesn’t matter; ten years are nothing.  To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow.  It will come regardless.  But it comes only to those who live as though eternity stretches before them, carefree, silent, and endless.  I learn it daily, learn it with many pains, for which I am grateful: Patience is all!

May we all spend a little more time this season practicing this under-utilized virtue!

Shalom,

Jacqueline

Evotional – October 31 – Leaving the Garden of Eden

Evotional – October 16 – Be Still and Know the Lord is God

At the women’s retreat this weekend, we spent time engaging in spiritual practices that enable us to “be still and know the Lord is God.”  Among them, we were reminded of the monastic Christian practice of praying the hours, when the entire community would cease work at pre-set times and engage in communal prayer.  In modern-day life, this practice is more commonly witnessed in the Islamic faith in which Muslims pause five times per day and join together in prayer.  As a form of engaging this practice, we set an alarm, and every time the alarm sounded we set aside whatever we were doing and joined in prayer.  While it’s appealing in theory to engage in routine prayer, it’s challenging in reality.  The basic human impulse to do just one more thing takes over, and it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ll get around to prayer as soon as you finish your current task.  Or, you’ll skip this prayer time and make it up later.  But, as Wayne Muller reminds us in his book Sabbath, we are all created with a natural rhythm that keeps us in tune with the God who created us and with who God created us to be.  When we take time to pause for rest on Sundays or pause for prayer throughout the day, we reconnect with God and ourselves.  Muller reminds us that it’s not just humans who were created to live in a certain rhythm, but all of the natural world:

Oysters open their shells when the moon is high.  The chambered nautilus forms a new chamber in its spiraled shell every lunar month.  Bees respond to the polarization of sunlight and orient themselves by the pattern it forms in a blue sky, even when the sun is behind the clouds.  Deciduous trees drop their leaves under the influence of the shorter days of autumn, and grow leaves again during the lengthening days of spring.

May you find a way within your day and week to pause, pray, and reconnect with who God created you to be.

Peace,

Jacqueline

 

Evotional – October 2

 

For a week, I’ve been preoccupied with two writing projects. But what began as promising, spirited ventures of conviction and creativity quickly degenerated into mirthless exercises of skill. After submitting one soulless product I realized that, once again, I’d let my inner “Mary” get hijacked by my inner “Martha.”

Martha’s got her good points. She’s hospitable, she believes the good news, and she’s a hard worker. Unfortunately, she’s also an expert at over commitment. That probably makes her the patron saint of modern life.  You know the story. Martha invites Jesus and the disciples into her home, then totally freaks out about how much she has to do. To add insult to injury, her sister Mary is just, just…sitting there. So what if Mary’s at the feet of the Master? There’s work to be done, for heaven’s sake!  So Martha complains about her sister’s selfishness and laziness and begs Jesus to make Mary get it in gear.

I’ve prayed the same thing a million times. In desperation to get as much done as quickly as possible, I perennially try to harness the unruly, creative parts of my personality so that the welldisciplined, productive parts of me can get to the very important business of DOING something. But Jesus’ answer to this is the same one he gave Martha. You fret about so many things, but only one thing is needed. He doesn’t specify what that thing is, but the story gives us clues.

Mary is described as sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he says. She has chosen to stop and pay attention. Her state of awareness is so blessed that God himself refuses to interrupt her for the mere business of daily life.

Since we can bank on the wisdom of the world being foolishness to God, I think it’s a safe bet to say that the thing that is needed is NOT all the food coming out hot at the same time, the grout on the kitchen counter being well‐scrubbed, or the writing project that’s technically perfect and spiritually dead.

Martha certainly has her place. Let’s not forget that Mary does, too. An entirely justifiable – and justified – place at the feet of God.

Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 28:23 and 45:3) 

Submitted by Erica MacCreaigh

Evotional – July 18 – High Tea

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?”  (Psalm 42:2)

Tradition has it that “afternoon tea” originated in the nineteenth century with Anna, Duchess of Bedford, who complained of “a sinking feeling” between lunch and dinner.  So, she ordered tea and biscuits and was so pleased with their restorative effects, she invited her friends to join her.  Viola!  Afternoon tea was born.

Today, Americans think of “afternoon tea” as “high tea,” but most working folks in the UK treat it matter-of-factly, with very little fuss and fanfare, usually involving just a tea bag and cookies from a box, but absolutely essential to making it through the day. 

There’s Sabbath wisdom in afternoon tea.  Those of us accustomed to knocking back mid-afternoon espresso shots and calling it a coffee “break” miss the point that teatime embodies.  The point of a teatime break is not to refuel our inexorable productivity for the last ¼ of the day.  The point of teatime is to stop.

Even God stopped.  Genesis tells us that on the seventh day, God ceased His labor; Exodus says He rested.  Clearly, the latter cannot happen without the former.  In our Sabbath-starved culture, where slave masters’ whips are something we carry inside us, a practice as simple as afternoon tea reminds us, in a pretty socially acceptable way, that we are not called to be creatures of relentless purpose.  We are called to be creatures of love. 

Teatime invites us to set aside our work and rest for a moment in the moment.  And only in the stillness of the moment can we truly reflect upon our lives and relate to one another as God intended – fully engaged, fully present, fully now.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters.”  Green, black, or white, tea time is a chance to savor still waters…with a little milk and sugar.
Submitted by Erica MacCreaigh

Evotional – June 27 – Good, Better, Best

“Good, better, best never let it rest until your good is better and your better best….”

This is a well know and often quoted rhyme.  Both the origin of which and to whom it is attributed are unknown.   The rhyme is amazingly simple and yet the charge is clear and direct.  We should always strive to do better than we typically do.  It challenges us to do a task or a chore, the living of our lives with passion; better than just good and then ultimately the best that we  can.  This, I believe, is the challenge that God presents to us as Christians everyday.  Christianity is not an easy faith.  Christianity does not simply imply nor is it satisfied with an OK effort while accepting a mediocre outcome.  The 19th century theologian and Congregational Church minister, Tryon Edwards, in his book of quotations “New Dictionary on Thoughts” provides the following:

“People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves.”  

In our Christian faith, that someone better or, in fact best, would be our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Jesus set the example for us to live by as human beings.  The Great Commandment stated by Jesus in Mark 12:29-31 is the simple charge to love and honor our neighbors as ourselves.  This was likewise interpreted by another prominent and famous 19th century Congregational minister, Henry Ward Beecher, in his quotation:

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.  Never excuse yourself.  Never pity yourself.  Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else”

Truly we are given the mandate by Christ and our Christian faith to do better, to do the best.  Let us take this thought into our daily lives and apply these words of wisdom daily.  The good, better, best principal should guide our professional and working lives, our daily interactions with others, our lives with our significant others and our families.  Let us ask God daily for guidance and the ability to seek the best that our Christian faith has to offer not only to fellow Christians but to all humanity.

May the Lord God richly bless you this week.  The Lord will pour down to us His best and we, in turn, should give our best back to Him and this world.

Submitted by David Tueting

Evotional – June 19 – Marriage

I’m not sure if June is still the most popular month to get married – it certainly isn’t for those who marry at Central – but this June I have weddings on my mind.  Not only are several couples who will marry in the fall coming in for premarital counseling, but last Sunday my parents celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary.  When I ask the soon-to-be married couples if there is anything that could make them doubt their love for their partner, they often give an emphatic “no!”  Perhaps they are just trying to sell the minister on the strength of their love and commitment, but I think many of them enter marriage genuinely believing their love will never be tested or doubted.  Of course, all relationships – even the strongest, most devout and faithful – are tested, and over the course of a lifetime everyone has moments of doubt.  So whether you’ve been married seven months or forty years, whether your relationship is on a mountaintop or in a valley of dry bones, there is wisdom in pausing to remember what a gift marriage is.  While Martin Luther has never been accused of being a sappy fool for romantic love, his words below are one of the best reminders I know of how great and truly good marriage can be.  

Shalom,
Jacqueline 

According to the ancients, marriage is praiseworthy because of children, loyalty, and love.  But one more benefit is also precious and positively the chief virtue of marriage: Spouses can rely upon each other and with confidence entrust everything they have on earth to each other, so that it is as safe with one’s spouse as with oneself. 

If we want to go further and talk about marriage in a Christian and divine way, then it looks like this: God’s Word is actually inscribed on one’s spouse; when a man looks at his wife as if she were the only woman on earth, and when a woman looks at her husband as if he were the only man on earth; yes, if no king or queen, not even the sun itself sparkles any more brightly and lights up your eyes more than you own husband or wife, then right there you are face to face with God speaking. 

God promises to you your wife or your husband, actually gives your spouse to you, saying: “The man shall be yours; the woman shall be yours!  I am pleased beyond measure!  Creatures earthly and heavenly are jumping for joy.” 

For there is no jewelry more precious than God’s Word; through it you come to regard your spouse as a gift of God, and as long as you do that, you will have no regrets! 

~Preached by Martin Luther in the year 1531~

Evotional for week of June 6, 2011

Evotional for week of June 6, 2011

By Pam Wineman 

June this year brings my second Father’s Day without my dad, who died in April 2009. This loss continues to weigh very heavy on my heart, but I’m blessed to have so many wonderful memories of Dad that truly bring me comfort. 

My dad was technically my stepfather, but he was a father to me in every way except genetically. He married my mother when I was eight years old. Each brought two kids to the marriage, so overnight we became a family of six. We kids ranged in age from 4 to 9 years old. Dad was also a Presbyterian minister. We weren’t particularly devout at home; however, we did pray before dinner, and Dad wanted to have a prayer just for us. So he wrote a prayer. It even opens with a brief responsive reading because he wanted the kids to take turns leading the prayer. I remember that he typed up little 3 X 5 index cards for each of us to have by our plate while we learned the prayer. 

Here I share just one small memory of my dad, who brought so much joy to my life. 

Lead: Praise the Lord!

Response: The Lord’s name be praised. 

Who gives us life?

God gives us life. 

What else does God give us?

Everything else we need.  

Then let us give thanks to God. 

We thank you God

For dad and mother and one another

For friends and fun

For moon and sun

For food and health

And everything else

That helps us grow and helps us know

You love us. 

Amen.

Evotional – May 22 – What a Beautiful Morning

What a joyous morning I just had. The birds were singing their hearts out, the air was warm with the promise of rain, and I had 2 whole hours to myself to transplant our vegetables into the garden. I am sure this analogy has been used many times before. But as I was handling the plants and their fragile roots, I was struck as how much we are like plants. 

To get ready to plant the vegetables I had to turn the soil and stir things up a bit, I had to add compost and plant food. Then as I planted them, I gently roughed up the roots to get them ready to move out into the soil and do their job. After they were in the ground, I took care to pack the soil firmly around them to hold them securely. Finally, the tomatoes needed cages around them to hold them up. Have you ever felt like you needed such care and support? I have. 

I have been so busy lately with end of the year events for my kids, after school activities, starting a new business, church involvement…. as many of you have been too I am sure. I have not been taking care of myself, or taking the time to nourish myself with peaceful moments like this morning. We need to make the time to care for our roots, to feed ourselves with spiritual nourishment, to feel the love of those around us or just simply to sit on the porch in the rain to marvel at creation. 

How do you do this? Is it possible that the youth luncheon this Sunday will allow you the time to reconnect with friends at Central? Or maybe the All Church Retreat will gently rough up your ‘roots’ and stir you to greater involvement in the life of the church or the mission outside our doors. I hope you will consider participating in these events. And in the mean time, let some rain fall on your face and allow yourself to feel the love of God as He nourishes us and the earth.

Prayer:

The Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the apple seed.
The Lord is good to me.

Amen 

Submitted by Betsy Clark

Evotional – May 16

Our Constant Reformation
John 13:35
Lately I’ve been reading “The Social Animal” by David Brooks. He wrote: “If you really wanted to explain where the essence of any person came from, you would have to say that first there was a relationship between [the person] and his parents. And that relationship had certain qualities. And as that person matured and developed self-consciousness, those qualities became individualized, and came to exist in him even when he was apart from his parents. That is to say, people don’t develop first and create relationships. People are born into relationships, and those relationships create people.”

In my training to become an adoptive father I’ve learned that the interactions we have with our children alter the connections of neurons in our brains.  As a child attaches to a new parent, and vice versa, the physical structure of the brain is changed.  And soan adoptive parent is biologically responsible for their child along with a genetic parent.  Relationships create people.

As religious folk, I think we might extend the idea further, and suggest that
everything, all of creation, was born into a relationship with God, and it is
that relationship with the creator that says more about our essence than
anything else.  Maybe this is why the gospel of Mark omits the story of Jesus’  biological birth and introduces him at his baptism, where a voice speaks to him, not about being powerful or messianic or deity, but about their relationship– “You are my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
 
As we do God’s work, let us recklessly pursue and develop relationships.  As
conflicts ebb and flow in our church, focus on the relationships.  The
conflicts taking the form of doctrinal disputes in churches are really
problems of connection—when we are well-connected and attached to each other our doctrinal disagreements are of less importance.  It is striking to me every time I read the gospel of John and try to finish this sentence—“they will know you are my disciples if you . . .”  

. . . can recite the Nicean Creed.  
. . . profess there is only one God
. . . know who will and won’t be in heaven, and exactly what heaven will be  
. . . tithe a certain amount, avoid certain words and bad behaviors

No, the sentence ends with an amazing commitment to the relationships that make us.  They will know you are my disciples if you love one another.  Be reckless in loving others.  When we do this we are changed.  We are spiritually, mentally, and even biologically re-shaped.  We are born again.

Paul Natale