As I am finishing my preparations for departing for General Conference I'm also trying to finish a sermon that I will preach on the Wednesday after my return. I went looking for something from one of my classes with Bishop Judy Craig and found an old journal she asked us to keep and in it I found this prayer she offered one evening:
May you have the insanity
to fight for change and justice
May you have the courage
to accept the call
May you have the peace
to know it will be alright.
I'm writing this one down and carrying it in my pocket for the five days I'll be in Ft. Worth at General Conference. I know we'll need it.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
A Prayer for General Conference
Oh, God, from whom to be turned is to fall;
to whom to be turned is to rise;
and in whom to stand is to abide forever.
Grant us in all our duties thy help;
in all our perplexities, your guidance;
in all our dangers, thy protection;
and in all our sorrows, thy peace.
Amen.
St. Augustine
to whom to be turned is to rise;
and in whom to stand is to abide forever.
Grant us in all our duties thy help;
in all our perplexities, your guidance;
in all our dangers, thy protection;
and in all our sorrows, thy peace.
Amen.
St. Augustine
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Perhaps the World Ends Here
The Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at Methesco has asked me to come back and be the guest preacher for the campus chapel service. I founded this alliance during my final year at the seminary and repeatedly found myself blessed and awed by the work, witness, and community of the GSA its first year. I am joyful to see that continuing this year under Kelley and Julia's leadership. And I am humbled to be preaching for the annual "Breaking the Silence" chapel.
This year the chapel service is the community Eucharist chapel. The date also happens to be during the General Conference* of The United Methodist Church (UMC). So the GSA was unanimous in its decision for the worship theme to be "The Open Table." As I sat with others who would be planning and leading that worship we were introduced to poet Joy Harjo and her poem Perhaps the World Ends Here. Its profoundly spoke to us and to our focus on The Table.
May her words speak to your heart as well.
Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
"Perhaps the World Ends Here" from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo. Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., www.wwnorton.com.Source: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1994).
This year the chapel service is the community Eucharist chapel. The date also happens to be during the General Conference* of The United Methodist Church (UMC). So the GSA was unanimous in its decision for the worship theme to be "The Open Table." As I sat with others who would be planning and leading that worship we were introduced to poet Joy Harjo and her poem Perhaps the World Ends Here. Its profoundly spoke to us and to our focus on The Table.
May her words speak to your heart as well.
Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
"Perhaps the World Ends Here" from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo. Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., www.wwnorton.com.Source: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1994).
*General Conference is the law-making body of the UMC. This year it is considering over 600 petitions regarding the church's official stance on homosexuality and full inclusion of gay, lesbian bisexual, transgender persons in the life of the church. [Side Note: The UMC is the church of "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" marketing, in spite of its living reality.]
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