Friday, May 13, 2022

Scriptures to Live By

 

Scripture to Live By – Selected readings

Isaiah 55:8-11

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Hosea 6:6

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 4:7-12

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Galatians 5:6b

The only thing that counts is faith working through love.

Galatians 3:28

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:11

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

James 3:17-18

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Acts 10:34-36

34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all.

Mark 12:29-31

29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

John 13:34-35

34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

On “Judgement”

Matthew 7:1-2

1 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

Luke 6:37-38a

37 “Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven; 38 give and it will be given to you.”

Romans 2:1

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 

 

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

A Prayer for Creation - a Poem

 This past Sunday, May 8, 2022, a member of the congregation I serve preached on Creation Care and the EarthKeepers movement in the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. She asked me to pray early in the service and I assumed she wanted me to pray for Creation. I wrote this poem for that purpose. 

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A Prayer for Creation - A Poem

Oh God, you who creates from overflowing love

Your Spirit swept across the waters –

was it an easy breeze or a category five hurricane?

When the lands were brought forth

was it a violent upwelling or a gentle push?

When you put your hands into the moist clay

to form adam and you breathed Spirit into us

 did you know what we would do

to the garden, to the earth, to your creation?

 

Do you see what we have done and do you cry?

Deforestation for marginal crops

Waters filled with all of our wastes

          We’ve burned the fossil fuels, remnants of your past creation,

now temperatures are rising on earth

and in our hearts as we fight each other

          We’ve sucked all the water out of the ground

Lakes, streams, rivers, reservoirs run dry

and we’ve torn up the earth for the minerals we adore

          The creatures that swim in your waters

                   that fly in your atmosphere

                   that crawl and creep and wiggle and slither on your good earth . . .

                             we have extinguished or are nearing extinction

As one singer once sang, we’ve paved paradise

          and put up parking lots and theme parks and office buildings

                   because we can and we are greedy and

                             we’ve misread your blessing of dominion

 

Forgive us! Help our unbelief and show us your way

          of living together in peace

                   of honoring all you have created

                             of working together to restore what we have destroyed.

          Open our eyes to see all we have done

                   unstop our ears to hear the cries of creation

          lift the veil that clouds our understanding

                   for your creation waits with eager longing

          Give us your heart of creating and loving and caring

 

Keep us ever faithful to you, O God

          Remind us of the covenant of the Rainbow

                   and the covenant of stewardship

                             and the covenant of the Cross

          May your Spirit once again blow across and renew creation

                   and breathe into our lives that we may renew

                             ourselves in your love

 

May your Spirit fall afresh upon us in the name

          of your Son, who lives with and within us

          the one who shows us your Way of Life

                   Jesus, the Resurrected and Living Christ. Amen and amen.