Tag Archives: god

How to Pray During an Election Season

Jesus for President

It’s not always easy to find words to pray during an election time.

How do we balance our Christian commitment to love our neighbors as ourselves and our passion about political platforms and candidates?

How do we pray for what we want to happen in our country without making it sound like we are rooting for some people to lose and others to win?

How can we pray so that, no matter what happens, we will trust that God is present in our world and working for wholeness?

How do we pray so that we are moved to live in hope rather than cynicism?

Again, this sure isn’t easy. I am almost always reminded to go back to that line in the Lord’s Prayer which says – “Your will be done“. Not my will – but God’s will. The more I wrestle with those few words, the more I try to let go of my own anxiety and anger.

I am also reminded of the stance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about the power and limitations of government – “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” May I not put too much trust in government, but may I understand what it can do to impact the good of many.

The Empire Remixed blog, posted last year, offers some prayerful words for an election season:

No one would ever elect you, Lord,
…but we dare to call ourselves citizens of your Kingdom.

Send your Spirit upon us so that we might be discerning citizens.
Fill us with your love and your compassion,
…that we might love our neighbors in how we vote,
…that your church might be leaven in the political life of our country,
…that the light of justice might shine in the darkness of our political life,
…that the mind of Christ might replace vain conceit and contempt.

What kind of words do you use as you pray during this election season in the US? How do you draw close to God? How do you find ways to love neighbors who might disagree with you politically?


It’s so Hard to Say Goodbye

Me & Joseph atop Mt. Scott in Oklahoma

Sunday was an emotional day for me – preaching about Jesus as servant and making a huge announcement -

I have accepted a call to serve as Senior Pastor at University Christian Church in Hyattsville, MD.

It’s not easy to leave a people and place that you love. I am still very passionate about the Table and about East Dallas Christian Church. It really is an amazing bunch of folks who are working hard to make a difference in our community. The mission of this congregation will continue on without me, possibly in new directions as God continues to shape and lead them.

The good news is that Rev. Douglass Anne Cartwright will be stepping up to continue to lead our worship as a community. She is also going to lend her presence, along with Bob Hearne, at our Faith in the City pub ministry. The radical invitation to join Christ at the welcome table will be shared each and every week at 629 N. Peak and around the neighborhood.

My last Sunday will be September 30. In addition to a reception on that day, there will be other opportunities throughout the week to celebrate what God has done and continues to do through our community. God is still good – God is still sending us to share the good news and bring others to join the celebration. I am grateful to have shared in this awesome work.

I’ll be sharing more reflections and hopes in the weeks to come. See you soon!


God Is Participatory

The Table worship gathering in dallas

I like to keep up with my buddy, Steve Knight, and his great blog, Missional Shift.

He wrote last week about God and a way he understands who God is:

It’s already been said many times in the missional church conversation that God is a missional God, that there is something in the very nature of God’s being that is missional, which is evidenced in Scripture by God sending Jesus Christ and God and Christ sending the Holy Spirit. And in the same way, we are sent … to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world today.

This isn’t a new topic for me. I happen to agree with this understanding of God’s actions in the world. In particular, the word “sending” has a lot of resonance for me. We close the Table worship gathering with a sending of one another for this very reason – I don’t think God wants us to keep this good news and hospitality to ourselves. In fact, the divine is already out the door, working in the lives of people we may never meet.

One of the worst things we can do in our growth as Christians is to figure out God. The more we look, seek, and seek to understand, the more God will be dynamic, empowering, and boundary-shattering. Throughout history, whenever a barrier has gone up, God has sent spirit-filled people to skirt its edges or cross it completely. Revisit the stories of the early black churches, monastic women leaders, Celtic Christianity, and the Desert Fathers and Mothers. God moves in mysterious ways, indeed.

God’s participatory nature means that even a follower who has endured for many years to know and understand the divine will still be surprised.

And that’s cool.


Faith in the City is at Pizza Lounge tonight!

Pizza Lounge pizza is so good

I know it’s lunch time, but go ahead and make dinner plans by feasting your eyes upon that delicious pizza above.

It’s a Pizza Lounge pie, and darn, it’s good stuff.

We’ll get the conversation and food going around 7:30 PM at 841 Exposition Ave, right across from the Fair Park DART station. I heartily recommend their delicious “dimebag” pizza with all kinds of green vegetables, but on occasion, we enjoy their happy goat or spicy muchaco. Oh, it’s also half price pizza night as a bonus.

The question for tonight is this – “Was Jesus ever wrong? About what?”

My first inclination is to point at the story of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:25-30, where Jesus seems rude to a Gentile woman in need. I can’t read that passage without thinking Jesus was wrong. But I also can’t read it without thinking that Jesus had the capacity to see things in a different light and change his mind.

If Jesus was fully human, doesn’t that mean he could be wrong about something?

Sometimes, folks who follow Jesus are called to be perfect, as Christ is perfect. But, being wrong is really about being human, the process by which we learn and grow. If Jesus never learned anything, then how is that any sort of model for us to follow? Is that any sort of teacher that we can relate to? What do you think?

Join our conversation tonight – I’m sure it will be as wide-ranging as it was last week.

 


Some things are just worth seeing in person

Bryce Canyon

Among the many highlights of our recent trip to the great American west, we visited Bryce Canyon. There were moments when I wondered if it was worth it. We drove out of Las Vegas to Zion National Park, did a quick tour through that amazing slice of wilderness, then headed onwards. It was a lot of driving in a single day. Just before we hit Bryce Canyon, storm clouds gathered as if to dampen our spirits. As we reached the top of the ridge overlooking the canyon though, I was speechless.

Bryce Canyon is one of those places where it’s hard not to take a good picture. Everywhere you look, there is beauty, stone and earth shaped and formed over millions of years into a vivid and mesmerizing landscape. My brain and heart sort of got quiet, and I was able to worship second by second in that natural cathedral. What an amazing place! And I was there, in first person.

No postcards. No Youtube video. No photo slideshow.

Some things are just worth seeing in person.

Working at a church, I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things – babies being born, families finding hope in the midst of grief, people of all ages turning over a new leaf, leaders discovering their call, and addicts hearing that they are loved. And for all of my own struggles and misgivings that I have had about organized religion over the years, it humbles me that my life intersects with other strangers, and we have the opportunity to learn and grow and wonder together. Religion is an ancient thing, like that canyon, with well-traveled paths that draw people into communion to marvel together at the mystery and beauty in Creation.

From the outside, it might not seem worth the drive or the effort… but when you get up close, you just may be surprised at what you find.

Where have you seen something beautiful this week? When has your heart and brain quieted down so you could just be? What do you wish you could see at the Table or another church that would connect you to God in a powerful, moving way?


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