Faith, Grace, and Hope

You who bridles untamed colts,  Who gives flight to birds,  Who steers ships along their course,  Tame our wild hearts,  Lift our souls to you,  Steer us toward the safe harbor of your love.  King of the saints,  Invincible Lord of the Father,  Prince of wisdom,  Source of joy,  Savior of our race,  Cultivator of all life,  Guardian of our desires,  Whose sure hand guides us to heaven.  Fisher of mean,  You cast out the sweet bait of your gospel,  You draw us out of the waters of sin,  Shepherd of men,  You call us with your sweet, gentle voice,  You invite us into your eternal sheepfold.  Fountain of mercy,  Light of truth,  Faith without limits,  Love without end,  Exemplar of virtue,  Proclaimer of justice,  Leader of men,  Your footprints show the way to heaven.  Mother of your p...

             This past spring, a mom from the preschool came back into the church after dropping off her child. In the corner of our parking lot, she had found a woman bent over and crying. Bringing her into the church office, the mother said that the woman was in pain from a broken tooth. The woman was obviously in a lot of pain and had sores on her face and her hands.             She said that she had been in so much pain she wasn’t able to work. When we asked what she did, she looked at us and said, “I’m a working girl.” She waited for the judgment we didn’t have time to give because we were trying to figure out how to help her. The mom offered to drive her over to Safeway for some Orajel (pain killer) and some food. In the meantime, I made calls to find some help. I tried the Mary Magdalene center, but got no answer.          ...

In trying to come up with a bulletin cover for this Sunday, we made a Wordle  of the Ephesians 1:3-14 reading. Those are the top 100 words from the reading. Clearly, Christ  is the main word. Surprise! Yet, I'm drawn to the verbs- destined, ransomed, intended, blessed, sealed, adopted, believed, chose, received... Almost all of these refer to God's actions toward us (and all creation) through the Living Word, through Jesus, through Christ . We are often too quick to list or listen to harsh verbs about God's action. God does get angry (see: Amos, Ezekiel, Jonah), but typically with just cause. Yet, God's modus operandi - FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME- is not   anger, but relationship. The verbs of Ephesians 1 reveal that desire- choosing, blessing, adopting- in a way that we should sit with, respond to, and ponder in our hearts.