Psalm 51:1-17 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

⁴Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in
your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you
pass judgment.

⁵Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in
my secret heart.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed
rejoice.

⁹Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit
within me.

¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy
spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing
spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return
to you.

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my
tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt
offering, you would not be pleased.

¹⁷The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise. 

Reflection by Rev. Kimberleigh Buchanan 

Once on a visit to the UCC Church House in Cleveland, a West Coast
UCCer and I were comparing our churches’ worship formats. When he saw that we
do a confession every week, his jaw dropped. “You do a confession? Like a
confession of sin? Well, that’s just depressing. We’re much more positive
at my church.” 

Not confessing our sins certainly would make for a more positive worship experience, but it would not be as authentic. The truth is, we’re human beings and as human beings, we’re going to mess up sometimes…sometimes in really BIG ways. 

Like David did. Remember David?  Greatest king in all of ancient Israel? Author
of beautiful Psalms…a man after God’s own heart. And –remember
Bathsheba? –an adulterer. A murderer. A willful abuser of his power.
David didn’t face his sin until Nathan the prophet confronted him. When David
realized what he’d done, he was crushed. He’d sinned against his fellow human
beings. He’d sinned against God. 

David’s first desire after facing up to his sin was to confess it,
to come clean with himself and with God about what he’d done. That’s what he
does in Psalm 51. There was no cover-up, no blame game, no media spin, no
impeachment proceedings, none of that. Just good old fashioned confession.
“I was wrong. I’m sorry.” Took some guts to do that, don’t you think? 

I wonder what gave David the courage to confess. Maybe he felt
confident to confess because he believed in a loving God, one who would still
love him despite everything he’d done. “A broken and contrite heart, O
God, you will not despise,” he wrote. David believed that. He believed
that, as the Apostle Paul will later write, “God is faithful and just to
forgive us of all sin.” How heartening to come clean with our sin and
still to be loved by God! 

We have the opportunity to come clean with our own sinfulness and
experience God’s love and forgiveness this evening. At 7:00, we’ll join together
in prayer, song, and the Imposition of Ashes to begin the season of Lent. I
don’t know if my UCC friend will be participating in an Ash Wednesday service
tonight…but I hope he does. Receiving God’s loves on the far side of
confession? It can be a truly moving experience. 

Prayer: 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not
cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Amen.

Psalm 34:4

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears”

Reflection by Wayne Scott  

There has never been a week in my life more like this past week that I have felt like God has placed certain knowledge in my path. As I reflect on the times that I have spent with my father, all of the lessons that he taught me and my brothers, and all of the things that I discovered about my father after his passing, I realized that, in spite of the fact that he stopped going to church before I was ever born, he continued to lead a quietly faithful Christian life.

When I was growing up I always went to church with my mother – my father always stayed home. I knew that my father was heavily involved with the church at one time, but had stopped going at some point for reasons unknown. It felt like one of those safely guarded family secrets – you know the ones that everyone kind of knows about but doesn’t ever talk about. While my mother and my brothers had their own theories, my father never really explained the real reason why he quit going to church. Aside from not going to church, I never saw my father reading from a Bible nor did I ever witness him praying (unless it was at one of the three big holiday meals and someone else was giving the blessing). Up until this past week, I simply assumed that my father had completely lost faith.

So what did I discover about my father this past week? And how does it fit with Psalm 34:4?

I discovered that my father liked to help people in need and didn’t tell anyone (not even my mother) when he did. Sometimes it was financial assistance (even at times when he wasn’t in a good position to do so) and other times it was some other act of Christian kindness. It wasn’t until those individuals came forward at his funeral service that we knew how much my father had secretively
helped people in their times of need. I discovered that my father not only had a Bible, but that he actually used it. He had placed items of importance to him, as many people do, inside of his Bible. Many of these items were bulletins from the church that my mother attended. Sometimes the scripture verses were highlighted, other times prayer concerns were highlighted, and yet other times it was something specific to our family – like the order of service that listed me as a soloist or the announcements of the births of his grandchildren. Not even my mother knew that he was collecting, highlighting, and storing these items in his Bible until after he had passed. I always knew that my father enjoyed his quiet moments (sometimes hours) on the back patio – silently watching his garden grow or watching and feeding the birds – but I always thought that he just enjoyed being outside. In light of this other evidence, I believe that those quiet moments on his back patio were the moments that he went to the Lord in prayer – only he really knows.

In reflecting on all of this and much more (too much more to write about here) I am convinced that my father’s faith was NEVER shaken. He sought the Lord – not by attending church, but by quietly tending to the needs of others and having his own inwardly personal relationship with God – and he was ultimately delivered from all of his fears. May we all strive to have our own deep
personal relationship with God!

Prayer:
Spend about 15 minutes (seems like a long time doesn’t it – try it for an hour or two if you REALLY want a challenge) sitting quietly with nature and have your own private conversation with God.

February 20, 2012 

I John 3: 1-3 

The Love of the Father

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Reflection by Monty Wyne 

God loves us like a father loves his children. Like a loving parent, God wants the best for his children. And like loving children, we strive to please God, our creator. There are times we are neglectful or rebellious. Sometimes we disobey and yet God continues to love and forgive us.  

“What we will be has not yet been revealed.”  Although we may not know now what life holds for each one of us, as we live out our lives more will be revealed to us and we’ll find what God has in store for us. I know that I have experienced God’s watchful presence when I find myself in an unfortunate life circumstance in which I feel there is no way out. I feel trapped and helpless. I have no answers, yet more often than not a path is revealed to me. 

I feel myself grow stronger and wiser as a person. I also feel closer to God for I know that it is He that has provided a way. He has shown me that despair can become triumph and that helplessness can become hopefulness and for that I am grateful. 

Since we are made in God’s image we should strive to be more like Him. God is the perfection, the purity that we should strive to emulate. In our striving, we become kinder, more loving and understanding people. And in that metamorphosis, we become purer of heart and soul. 

Prayer: 

Dear God,

There are times I struggle as one of your children, yet you pick me up. There are times I lash out with resentment and anger, yet you forgive me. I strive to be more like you and yet there are many times I fall short, but you give me the benefit of the doubt. Your boundless love and understanding are a mystery to me, but I am so thankful you are there to catch me when I fall prey to my human shortcomings.  Amen

Joshua 24:14-15

Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’

Reflection by Jim Kennedy

This is the polytheism versus monotheism issue of the Hebrew scripture; “the gods your ancestors served” versus “the Lord” And
you must choose, oh my.  In The Evolution of God Robert Wright described the polytheism, monolatryism, and monotheism phases of God. Polytheism was many gods; monolatryism was one god for each society, but of course my society’s god is more justified, important, and powerful than your society’s god; and monotheism was one true-and-all-powerful god in charge of everything.

In monolatryism the feeling was that my god can beat up your god in the pig-pen scrap. Monolatryism had none of the working
together of polytheism or the I’m-in-charge-of-everything of monotheism.  Monolatryism was the true precursor to my dog (house, car, bank account…) is bigger than your dog…

Wright also wrote about how, in the eighth century B.C.E., god had achieved the “Yahweh-alone” phase of development. Each
society had its own monotheistic deity, but for those of Judea the winner was Yahweh alone. Woe be unto you who don’t buy into Yahweh alone.  You’ll end up in the pig pen. Eventually Yahweh (God, Allah) won over all the other monolatric gods and became the winner of monotheism.

In The Faith Instinct Nicholas Wade wrote that biologists have come to realize that social animals have developed rules for restraining their self-interest and that religion, which grew out of social rules, embodies the moral rules that members of a community observe toward one another to sustain the quality of the social fabric. Wade wrote about how the existence of special neural circuitry in the human brain dedicate to moral decisions is evidence that morality is an evolved faculty with a genetic basis.

So why did the human brain evolve to the monotheism of “the Lord” and not the polytheism or the monolatry of “the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt”? Was “the Lord” right and “the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt” wrong?  Or were these two way of saying the same thing about a transcendent and imminent God? Remember when Albert Einstein asked the question, “Is light a wave or a particle?” The correct answer is “Yes”. Maybe the human brain hasn’t
evolved solely to monotheism. Fortunately many of us are open to the many ways of thinking about God.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I pray that you are one, but if you are not that’s OK, as long as you are the loving and accepting God(s) for all.

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by having
enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

Reflection by Joyanna Wyne 

Paul writes to the Corinthians, encouraging them to renew their efforts to collect money for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.  Although Paul doesn’t tell us the economic conditions in Corinth at the time, he does mention that the Macedonians gave freely, even though they themselves were poor.  This passage speaks to us today, as times remain tight for many of us.  For the
past year, my brother has faced the possibility of losing his job.  He has stayed in touch with his human relations manager, who assured him of a place with a sister company.  Now that company is being sold, and his last day of work is February 29^th.

Such is the corporate world.  Despite a successful career, through layoffs, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, this is his
fifth job loss.  Each time I have marveled at his ability to redouble his efforts and start yet another job search.    Fortunately, he learned from an early age that “God will provide,” and the corollary, “Give and you shall receive.”  He trusts that God will meet
his needs and more, and that he in turn can help provide for others.  He knows that God is the ultimate human resources manager.

 Prayer: 

Dear God, whatever our circumstances, may we never doubt that you will provide for us.  May we in turn give gladly, to help
our brothers and sisters in need, and to bring glory to your name.  Amen.
 

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

Ephesians 1:15-16

      Studies have shown that a positive outlook and feelings of thankfulness can have a direct and beneficial effect on the brain and body. One of the practices uncovered from this research is known as the Three Blessings exercise. Each night before going to bed you write down three good things (ordinary or extraordinary) that happened to you during the day. Those who continue this exercise for one week can increase their happiness and decrease depressive symptoms for up to a six-month period. In addition, a Duke study of a group of 4,000 people over age 64 found that those who prayed regularly had significantly lower blood pressure than those who prayed intermittently.
      As Ash Wednesday approaches, perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider combining these practices as a Lenten exercise. Each night, say a prayer of thanks for at least 3 good things that occurred or for three people in your life for whom you were particularly thankful during the day. It certainly couldn’t hurt, could it?

Prayer:
God, giver of all good things, help me each day to recognize and be thankful for all the blessings in my life. Amen.

Judges 4:1-7

Deborah and Barak

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. So the Lord
sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim.  Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; for he had nine hundred
chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly for twenty years.

 At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She
used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and
the Israelites came up to her for judgement. She sent and summoned Barak son of
Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, ‘The Lord, the God of Israel,
commands you, “Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the
tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general
of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his
troops; and I will give him into your hand.” ’

Reflection by Diane Ingram

Estimated driving time from Nazareth to Mount Tabor is a little more than 30 minutes.  So, this story of Deborah, from more than 1,000 years before the birth of Christ, takes place in the same area where Jesus would live and carry out his ministry so many years later.

Back in the time of the judges, the Israelites kept doing what was evil, and because of that God caused them to live in oppression
under a Canaanite king. They cried out for help. God intervened by issuing commands through Deborah, a prophetess. We can almost see her there, under a palm tree in the hill country between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean, giving explicit directions about location and troop numbers to Barak, who will lead the way to victory.  (His name, by the way, has nothing to do with President Obama’s name, which comes from another source.)

This passage reads like the ancient story it is, with emphasis on military battles and certain faith in God’s help in securing victory. We can see the imprint of Biblical stories like this on our contemporary culture. But, we can also see a woman of intense faith acting as a leader, and we can see God as willing to help us, even when we have behaved in unreasonable ways.

Prayer:

God of all, help us to know that we are brothers and sisters, that we need no longer battle each other.  And, help us to know that we can always come back to you, however far we may have wandered.

 Exodus 3:1-15

Moses at the Burning Bush

3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ ⁶He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ ¹¹But Moses
said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ¹²He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God
on this mountain.’

The Divine Name Revealed

13 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ ¹⁴God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’¹⁵God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the
God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:  This is my
name for ever, and this my title for all generations.

Reflection by Lynne Buell

‘Exodus’ means departure—evacuation.  So God instructed Moses to approach the people in Egypt who were being terribly
mistreated as slaves and guide them to a more pleasant land where they would be free and could prosper.  ‘God’ means “Spirit”—“Divinity”.   Then, God told Moses what God should be called when Moses talks about who he was sent by to lead the people to a better place.

So I am experiencing an ‘epiphany’, which if you click on this word for the thesaurus, it comes up “No results were found”. 
So I will call it a thought phenomenon.  Every time I learn something from the Bible, and I mean every time, I have an epiphany. 

It is all coming together for me, but I have a long way to go which I am looking forward to. 

Prayer:

Help me to continue with those wonderful ah-hah moments which exhilarate me so much.  I need your presence in my life more than ever, and it brings me comfort to know you can hear me when I speak to you.

2 Kings 2:1-12 

“When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way
from Gilgal. . . . Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ ‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied. . . .”

Reflection by Rachel Shively 

Elisha, like any of us, is willing to follow someone he loves on any journey to stay with them as long as possible. Losing someone we care about is very difficult. Some of us are given the opportunity like Elisha of knowing that the day is coming soon. While others are ripped away from us without any warning. The gift that Elisha is given is time. He travels with Elijah, and can learn as much as possible before Elijah is taken to heaven. We as the survivors have a tendency to get stuck in the thought pattern of how can we possibly live without the person we love. Somehow, we feel that the only strength of spirit we possess is there because this person is with us. Only imagining that when they pass, there will be no way for us to go on living. 

The epiphany comes when Elisha realizes how strong his spirit is without Elijah with him. God reminds us with the story of Elijah and Elisha that are spirits will be as strong or stronger when we let go of those we love so that they may pass. We take the lessons we have learned on the journey – how to cook certain dishes, how to fish, how to sew, how to play chess, etc. We take the moments we cherished – late night bowls of cereal, eating ice cream by the river, camping, holiday celebrations, etc. Most importantly, we take the love we shared with us. No one can take that away from you. 

Every moment is dear when you know someone you love is leaving soon. Do not be afraid. Embrace as many moments as possible with them, and then set each other free.  

Journal prompt: Reflect on someone you have lost. Was it sudden? Or did you have time to journey with them? Did you take the opportunity to embrace every moment? Write down recipes? Learn how to tie that lure? What would you have done differently? If you did not take advantage of the time, then write the loved one a letter asking them all of things you would have asked. Now, write yourself a letter about all of things that you learned from your loved one. 

Prayer: 

Dear God, losing someone I love can be so scary. I always get nervous that I should have done more with them. I should have asked more questions. I should have listened more carefully. God, take this anxiety from me. Help me to remember the strength of spirit that Elisha felt after losing Elijah. God, I want to be strong. I want the person I love to know they were cherished, and their actions will live on after they are gone. God, thank you for this precious gift of love and strength in my darkest times. In your blessed and holy name, Amen.

2 Cor. 9:6-7

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves
a cheerful giver.

Reflection by Rochelle Lofstrand

There was a debate among friends on a blog recently that discussed whether or not there was actually an act of selflessness. Is there a time when giving or doing something for someone else actually does not benefit the giver?  Here are some comments from that blog:

         
YOU can do no selfless act. =]

-    
Even when we do something like volunteer or donate money, we do it
because in a sense it makes us feel good about ourselves.

-         
I submit that motivation has nothing to do with it.
The definition of selfless is “having no concern for self.” so, even
if I, ran into a burning building to save someone and it made me feel good
about what I did, it was still a selfless act because I had no regard for
myself.

-         
You wanted to be a hero. You didn’t want to live with the guilt.
Whatever. A priori, human action = self. Of course, that doesn’t answer the
real question – how does the equation balance? The person running into the
burning building IS putting other’s interests ahead of his own.

These comments made me think about why we do what we do.  Why do we stop for an accident, help someone cross the street, help a crying child find their parents, give to MUST, or even give to our church?

When I read this passage from 2 Corinthians, I think about how wonderful it does feel when I give (or sow) without any trepidation, reluctance or fear but with my whole heart.  God loves a cheerful giver, right?  Do you think that God knows how great it feels to do acts for others?  Do you think that God wants us to continue to give even though some might consider that warm/fuzzy feeling we get selfish?  ABSOLUTELY!!!

Prayer:

Lord, help me to be a cheerful giver.  Help me to give financially when I am able and to not look back with regret. Help me to give of my time and to value the interactions I have with your creation as I do so.  Help me to give of my talents so that others might experience YOU through ME.  Amen.