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Re: Spring Cleaning!

By: joe-taylor in FFFT | Recommend this post (0)
Fri, 15 Mar 13 4:43 PM | 54 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 		Msg. 50844 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 50828 by joe-taylor)
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"I will send an army against Babylon; I will break down the city gates." Isaiah 43: 14


We are our own Babylon and faith breaks down when we try to push away injustice and meanness, ingratitude and trouble, to secure our own peace and happiness. Prayer and Bible reading can turn meditation into a distancing from what's disturbing rather than an source of incentive for dealing with it. Often we don't want to be stirred to action and relish instead getting away from it all. The importance of stepping back can become and excuse for stepping away.

I step away when I'd rather enjoy the warm assurances of faith than pray to follow the ways of Christ, as though I can get the prize without the race. I'd rather find relief from doubt than accept it and admit I can't pray as I'd like--which may be the best prayer of all, resting on something God understands and Jesus' own doubt in Gethsemane shows. I'd rather prayer be contemplative than provocative. I'd rather be nice than honest, forgetting that can make things worse. I'm more inclined to pray for blessing--like help, healing, confidance, forgiveness, for myself or others--than focus on the One who gives blessing, often in ways I didn't know to pray for.

Prayer is praise before it's petition. It's pausing to acclaim God as all-knowing and merciful before it's "help me" or help someone else. We need first to redirect our attention beyond what we think best to receive strong faith. We'll find fresh springs of grace flowing freely when we give God priority and then move back into whatever we face that we alone couldn't handle.


May I be more open with you and others, O God. Break through my defensiveness. Amen.


William Green is Vice President for Strategy and Development of the Moral Courage Project, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.


To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Spring Cleaning!
By: joe-taylor in FFFT
Thu, 14 Mar 13 5:14 PM 		Msg. 50828 of 65535

Rationalize or Confess?


"Happy or those whosae transgression is forgiven." Psalm 32: 2


I used to say that if I were to start my own business, it would be called, We Can Rationalize Anything. Just bring something you have done or anticipate doing, and I will help you rationalize it. Of course, it wasn't long before I realized that this business would be a complete bust. Although there is great demand for rationalizations, most people know very well how to come up with their own.

The alternative to rationalization is confession. Some people tell me they don't like prayers of confesson in worship. When they talk about their experience of confession it sounds about as appealing as a trip to the principal's office. But confession, when it is followed by an assurance of pardon, can be something quite different--more like being shown the way to freedom after a time of captivity.

After all, there is something wonderfully freeing about facing the truth about ourselves. Some people may need to believe that they are lovable, but Christians are free to recognize that we are not always lovable because we know that God loves us anyway. The point of confession is not to feel badly about ourselves, but rather to cling to the goodness of God.

There was a self-help book a while back entitled I'm Okay, You're Okay. William Sloane Coffin liked to point out that the Christian version of that affirmation is more like, I'm Not Okay, You're Not Okay, But That's Okay. Coffin's version is an assurance of God's forgiveness. That's why I don't think of confession as anything like a trip to the vice-peincipal's office.


God, though I sometimes shrink from confession, help me to be open with you, I will cling to your goodness. Amen.


Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, UCC, Wellesley, Massachusetts.

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