Pastor’s Notes

There is a prayer that I share with a congregation with whom I have been in ministry and from whom I am preparing to depart, though perhaps not immediately.  My prayer has seen as many re-writes and revisions as there have been congregations to whom it is addressed.  Today, as we approach our celebration of Independence Day, which is important to me as a U.S. citizen, I still prefer here to celebrate our Dependence Day, focusing upon our abject dependence upon and need for God in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, through Whom all our precious illusions dissipate and all abiding truths are apprehended.  WP

Gracious God, One whom Jesus teaches us to call “Papa,” we affirm your movements among us as Creator and Redeemer and Holy Spirit.  Through your gracious Word, the vast reaches of the ultimately imponderable universe sprawl before us as invisible infinity; a wondrous order permeates all things great and small, and even your chaos is purposeful; the stars and planets and galaxies spin in their courses; the good potentials of living creatures unfold all about us and within us; the innumerable conditions necessary for life are sustained in your mysteriously quiet, beautiful, yet almost anonymous harmony.  You are humble and subtle with us, even here.  But even as we affirm and praise you as our Creator, we are reminded that the good light of your universe suggests, intimates really, the existence of an inner light which never fades, a spiritual light which seeks to guide and conform every human life toward your Holiness.  We affirm you as our redeeming God, shedding abroad your Grace in the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives and families; in the liberation and deliverance of your chosen people Israel; in the words and deeds of your prophets; in the person, work and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord; and in the ministry of His Church as guided by your Holy Spirit.

Eternal Papa, you Who are the source of life and of the love which makes that life meaningful, the Light of the world, we seek to worship you in spirit and in truth, filled to overflowing with gladness and gratitude that we may lay claim to your Acceptance of us through faith in Jesus Christ, the One Who became like us so that we might become like Him, the One Who has claimed us, as we are and as we shall become.  We urgently beseech you, Papa, and through the wisdom scriptures we are guided to say “Mama” as well, to keep us courageous in our faith, that the siren song of self-interest may not seduce us away from obedience before you; that the world’s wisdom of controlling and acquiring may not deflect us from loving servant-hood in the name of Christ Jesus.  We pray that the fruits of a vibrant faith may be ours:  that the experience of being loved unconditionally may lead to freedom from debilitating anxiety and fear; that the security of your sacredly conferred worth upon us as the Beloved of Jesus, a worth we could never earn or achieve, may engender personal peace; that the joyous pleasure which attends your gracious Presence among and through us may empower and galvanize our wills for sacrificial causes in the face of terrifying powers; that the fusion of heart and mind through Grace may lead to that purity (not “perfection”) which wills one thing.  May we be bold to lay claim to these treasures of faith which would make us whole and complete, healing all our divisions through participation in the Realm of Love which has been prepared for us from the foundation of the world, the Realm to be entered, in this time and in the time to come, only in faithful repentance, faithful forgiveness, and faithful reconciliation.  Over and over and over…70 times 70 times 70….over and over…

Gracious God in Jesus Christ, we thank you for First Reformed United Church of Christ, as part of the Body of Jesus Christ in this time and place.  We thank you that with the passing months and years, with your Guidance, we have struggled toward a greater maturity of faith, learning as much or more through our mistakes as through our successes, even being unsure, at times, as to what “failure” and “success” is as you reckon it.  We are grateful for the opportunities we have had to learn what it means to sacrifice and to suffer voluntarily for a good which is greater than ourselves; what it means to take up one another’s burdens in Christ; what it means to experience both your Presence and your Absence; what it means to be lifted up in joy and in sorrow, at birth and at death, at marriage and at separation, in arriving and in departing, in assuming a work for you and laying it down for you, and at every polarity of life.  We acknowledge, merciful and compassionate God, that in this, your Church, we are in the crucible wherewith you will to transform our lives:  where each heart may be strangely warmed; where intelligence and emotion may flow and fuse together in the miracle of new creation before and in you; where alienation is replaced with reconciliation; where despair is replaced with hope; where unresponsiveness to your Spirit is replaced with quickening faith; where hollowness and emptiness at the core of life is replaced with unconditional love; where dross is transformed into gold.  We thank you for this good place where we may nurture and be nurtured; this good place which is both the beginning point and the end-point of earthly ministry; this good place which affords us a community together unlike any other on earth; this good place where the Light of the world may be proclaimed and received, received and proclaimed. 

“Surely,” we may affirm with the Psalmist, “…the Lord is in this place!”   With these affirmations, we are empowered to look to the future so that we may be witnesses to those who still walk in darkness, even when darkness may yet crouch within us; witnesses to a community which tends to value the powers of the intellect and achievement over the worth of personhood, even when we tend that way sometimes ourselves; witnesses to a world proud of its civilization and science but still fearful of its future without peace and without hope, as we sometimes fear.  May all our divided loyalties be laid under the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, that we may transcend our own brokenness through His Transcendence of us, replacing as He does, our heartbeat with His, our breath with His, our voice with His, our vision with His, so at length we may all arrive at Home in Him—the same Jesus Who taught us to pray together, saying, “Our Father, Who art in Heaven…”   

Blessings & Shalom, Rev. Walt