Prayer for Children

Below is a prayer that I cobbled together and offered for our Noah's Sunday following our week long Vacation Bible school which focused on introducing our kids to the issues surrounding our friends on the streets

A Prayer for Children

Lord of Life,
We pray for scampy children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

God of Compassion,
We pray for children
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never play tag or go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

Loving Father,
We thank you for the children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we hurt for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who don't have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

Gracious God, help us be gracious to children
who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
whose smiles can make us cry.

Almighty God, help us bring justice for those children
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything
Who have never seen dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the One who welcomes children, may we do so as well
We pray for all children
Who want to be carried, who don’t want to be carried and for those who must,
We pray that we would never give up on any of them
And that you would gather them up,
Cuddle them like lost sheep
And release them to be your love, light, and salt in the world.
For we believe Lord in your kingdom – your playground
Where goodness is stronger than evil
Love is stronger than hate
Light is stronger than darkness
Truth is stronger than lies
We need not be afraid.

Alternative Giving Campaign Kick-Off

Below is the speech that I gave for the Kick-Off of the Alternative Giving Campaign Press Conference on April 20, 2010. To check out the website see http://www.realchangesb.org/

Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) would like to thank Mayor Schneider and the City Council for their year long work on the critical problems of poverty and homelessness in our community. We also appreciate their ability to gather diverse stakeholders including the business community, social service workers, and faith communities and believe that this collaboration remains critical if we are to create real change. But we also recognize that WE are the city. The problems of poverty and homelessness are not only a concern for governments and social service agencies but for all of us.
CLUE supports the fundamental premise of the Alternative Giving campaign that the problem we face is not panhandlers. We support neither demonizing nor romanticizing those who are daily struggling on our streets. The campaign, then, creates an exciting challenge for all of us - the challenge for our community to give – creatively, abundantly, and responsibly to HELP our neighbors on the street.
But what does such neighborly giving mean practically? Where does your money go? The point of the Alternative Giving campaign is to encourage caring and thoughtful individuals to give directly to programs that connect those in need with local social services. It means that the dollars that you donate in local area businesses, from church budgets, or through text-giving, go directly to helping hands –to street outreach workers who seek to:
1) help people off the street and into more permanent, stable housing with services; (2) secure food for the hungry; (3) provide more space in shelters and critical medical care; (4) offer freedom from addiction and substance abuse. CLUE particularly encourages faith communities to join the city in this effort to encourage compassionate giving. Yet we believe that dollars are not enough. We urge everyone to go out into the streets to greet and recognize our brothers and sisters who need our help. Caring for the most vulnerable people in our city – the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled, those without homes – needs to continue and increase. Compassionate action is neither exceptional nor optional. It is a fundamental expression of what it means to be human. It is our spiritual duty. And it is within our reach. Thank you.

90° Initiative

We at MCC endeavor to take seriously Jesus’ command to all those who would follow him:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ Matthew 22:37-39

By coupling the second commandment “to love your neighbor” with the command “to love God,” Jesus is saying that these two actions are indelibly linked. This divine connection is the ideal that we as a church are working towards an active love that seeks nothing less than the holistic transformation which touches all parts of life (spiritual, economic, emotional, and physical needs). On February 28th, I will be promoting the 90° Initiative - loving God ↑ and loving others →. This initiative seeks to help people discover how they can partner with organizations to experience and express the good news of a gospel life – where their deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. The kick-off will involve a survey to assess current volunteer trends within the community and to connect interested parties with specific, relevant opportunities that fit their schedules and skill-sets. Please pray for this work as we seek to engage opportunities for service that embody love and initiative of Jesus.

Working as a Waiter in the Kingdom of God: Sermon Podcast

To listen to the sermon, visit http://drop.io/miketech


If you would like a printed version, simply email me at gospelaction@mcchurch.org.

Peace,
Jon

The Community of Promise: Repair, Rebuild, & Reveal

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus quotes a passage from the scroll of Isaiah to express who he is and what he is doing. Reading aloud from the scroll he said,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 3:18-19, cf. Isaiah 61:1-2).

That passage is a fantastic declaration of Jesus’ calling, but do you know the rest of Isaiah’s passage? Aha, I didn’t think that you did. The passage goes on from this prophecy about the servant of the Lord who would save Israel to a people who will follow his way. Isaiah writes,

“They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (Isaiah 61:3-4).

To remember that we believe Jesus was foretold about by the book of Isaiah almost 600 years before he arrived is certainly cool. To be reminded that he came to proclaim “good news to the poor” gives us pause as we try to follow his way and heed is message. But to realize that the prophet also wrote about us leaves me empowered and humbled in a way that’s hard to articulate through words and ink. As I write this, the steady stream of news too horrifying to compute continues to pour out of Haiti where the death toll from a recent earthquake has left the country “devastated” with “ruined cities” and a death toll that will almost certainly be the “devastations of many generations.” It was for such events as this that you and I were promised by Isaiah to be a “planting of the Lord” that repairs and rebuilds, revealing the glory of God who cares for all. As we begin the new year will you join me in declaring this to be the year of the Lord’s favor as we seek to send ripples of kindness and grace (that were promised so long ago) out into our communities and wider world. Join with me in reading aloud Isaiah 61:3-4 so that we can express who we are and what we are doing and say like Jesus, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 1:21). Let them hear this prophecy in Haiti, on State Street, on Westmont Road as well as the West side and around the world, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.