Latest Posts

Prayer of the People, 22 January 2021

January 25, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have made it possible for us to live in your kingdom now as brothers and sisters drawn together through our confession of Jesus, “He is Lord!” How is it that we share in your communion except by grace? Thank you for doing everything necessary for us to enjoy your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Help us Lord.
As you have forgiven us may we also forgive one another.
As you have accepted us may we also accept one another.
As you have mercy-ed us may we also grant mercy to one another.
As you have spoken truth to us may we also speak sincerely to one another.
As you have loved us may we also love one another from the heart.
Come Lord Jesus.

May the prevailing ministry of your Spirit continue to free us from the grip of sin and our old deathly habits. Transform us Lord according to your will and your Word. May we become more like Jesus together.

Oh Lord, we lift up to you our government leaders and representatives in this region and country; please grant them wisdom from heaven. Turn good ideals for service into reality.

We lift up to you medical and health care providers in our country who are feeling weary under heavy loads of extra precautions and of loss during the pandemic. Oh Lord, refresh their souls, assure them of your company with them, and reveal yourself to them.

We lift up to you our work-places and pray that you would fortify us with grace and wisdom to do good work and to be steady, watchful, servants in your Name and for your Kingdom.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray…

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 22 January 2021.

Prayer

, , ,

Prayer of the People, 15 Jan 2021

January 18, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have loved us with an everlasting love. You saw each of us in our mother’s womb and you have knit us together for your glory. Now in the fellowship of your people, your new creation impulse is at work. Thank you for including us in your communion, the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What a happy thought Lord, our sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and we bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! Thank you for the dramatic testimony of your love in the body of Jesus. We thank you for the grace to believe!

By your Spirit and not by the pride of our own strength cause your Word to be fulfilled in our generation. Build your church Lord right next to the gates of Hell. Rescue the perishing. Please  restore people on our campus and in our city into the image of their Creator through the knowledge of your Son Jesus Christ. Transform us that we might become like Him together.

Oh Lord, we lift up to you the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Comfort and heal Lord from the ravages and insecurities of the pandemic. Fortify them with your wisdom and with hope.

We lift up to you the dear people of Yemen and ask that you would bring peace.
We lift up to you the dear people of Turkey and ask that you would send rain.
We lift up to you the dear people residing in Strathcona Park here in Vancouver and ask that you would open hearts and open doors so each one may be treated with dignity and granted opportunities for safe housing and flourishing community.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray…

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 15 January 2021

Prayer

, ,

My Pillow

January 16, 2021 0 Comments

there once was a commercial
that made my granny laugh
at odd moments she would re-enact
a short sniff, a long snnnnnniiiiiiffffff 
a raised eyebrow 
before declaring in a voice 
with condescension dripping
“This pillow stinks!”
and then she would laugh
we all laughed too
until stretching out in bed
to realize, the stink, it’s here. 
It’s my pillow too!

Poetry

#BlackShirtDay

January 15, 2021 1 Comment

Last week I went on a walk with my youngest. She is thirteen years old. We chatted for a bit as we walked and then both settled into the pace and the quiet.

However, after a time, she asked me, “What are you thinking about?” It’s a favourite question. I answered and then asked her. “What are you thinking about?”

13yr old: I’m wondering if the people who made that show, Raising Dion, are going to make another season.

Me: I really enjoyed that show. I think they will. What do you like about it?

13yr old: I like his super powers.

Me: Don’t you think Dion’s mother was so stressed out? Raising kids with super powers must be something parents have to worry about.

13yr old: I have super powers.

Me: Yes?

13yrd old: I can write stories.

Me: Yes you can!

I’m asking you and I ask myself, “Should I be worried?”

I do worry. But not because of her super powers, but because her skin is black and she is growing up on a continent where white racial preferences and powers so often resist full kinship and economic inclusion with people who are black. She lives in a place where engagements with white people can become authority encounters vacated of generosity and acceptance if the expected respect and deference is not forthcoming. She lives where things turn ugly if the cultural rules of whiteness are not accepted. These kinds of encounters can happen on the street, in a school, on the playground, online, in a restaurant, in a classroom, on a protest line, in a church, at a friend’s house, in the park, at work, in a board room, on the sidewalk, in a store, at a gas station, in an auditorium, in the legislature, on the bus, in the courtroom, on the beach, over coffee…

Will she be ready? Will she be fortified in heart with the courage required to exercise her super powers and not be overcome by evil? Will she know she is beloved?

I know super powers do not protect us from the violence of hate. But I hope if my 13yr old gives voice to her stories and that she will play a part in realizing Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. It’s his birth day, 15 January; he was born in 1929 and died in the year of my birth, 1968, assassinated while I was still in my mother’s womb. I didn’t know him, but I have been shaped by the spirit and content of his powers in speech and in leadership and in his dream.

But still, I worry.

(Here’s a shout out to Harambee Cultural Society who have encouraged us to get beyond worry and do something together. Thank you!)

Change, Society

, ,

Two Houses. One Longing.

January 15, 2021 0 Comments

“After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but there were unaware of it.” Luke 2:43

After his parents spent three maybe five days apart from the 12 year old Jesus, and at least four of those days absolutely frantic about him, he tells his parents, “Why were you searching for me?

Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house.”

Now that is not what most of us would want to hear from a kid on the way to becoming an adult, even a young adult. But Jesus seems to have been tuned into his longings and doing something about them.

Some of us are quite tuned into our longings and grant them high value in our decision making. However, our vision of Christian maturity as a follower of Jesus, doesn’t just unleash every one of our longings as the finished and ultimate truth about us. We recognize that our own longings though they may be good are also susceptible to the kingdom of darkness.

Where there once was innocence now there is guilt.
Where there once was honour now there is shame.
Where there once was trust now there is fear.

In the Kingdom of Darkness guilt longs to be right, shame longs to be respected, and fear longs for security and strength. The answers provided by the Kingdom of Darkness bend us away from Jesus and His ways. We all grow up with some kind of vision even a warped vision of what it means to be a strong, secure, respectable, and righteous human. Warped visions will move toward control, greed, violence, and hateful contempt of Creation, people, including self, and of Jesus.

In the Kingdom of Jesus though guilt is forgiven, shame is covered, and fear is replaced with love. This is what the grace of Jesus accomplishes for us through His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. When we are living fully in this grace the power of longings and will  are gathered up in a conviction, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house.” “I had to be.” This phrase get’s its urgency from a little greek word, “dei.” Sometimes translated “must,”so in some translations this passage reads, “Didn’t you know I must be in my Father’s house” or “I must be about my Father’s business.”

After Jesus’ baptism He would use the word “dei” to describe with urgency and necessity of the movement of his life toward the Cross. “The Son of Man must (dei) suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must (dei) be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22)

Jesus knew that His longing to be in the things of His Heavenly Father required the Cross. He was compelled to move according to the heart and will of His Heavenly Father.

But Jesus also used the word to describe His movement into another house, the house of Zaccheaus. This wealthy tax collector had profited from his relationship with government officials, probably on both sides of the Roman / Jewish conflict in order to take advantage of many people. But on this day, he wanted to see “who Jesus was,

but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house today.’

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’

Wow! There it is again. Jesus links His longing to be in the affairs of His Heavenly Father with his actions. This time going to the house of Zaccheaus. 

“I must (dei) stay at your house today.”

Jesus invited Himself to home of a notorious and wealthy man who may have been considered by some to be a traitor, a cheat, a thief, a short man who made their lives mightily difficult. 

Jesus was not all about the religious house or Temple of God. Jesus is all about the interests of His Heavenly Father for people in any house, so that each person may be transformed as the temple of God.

The fruitfulness of actions are not always so obvious. But on this occasion the wisdom of Jesus’ actions are on display for us.

“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look Lord! Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’”

A Prayer:

O Spirit of God, 
I would tune my heart 
to the longings of Jesus,
but my ear lacks perfect pitch.
I open my heart so 
the Father’s heart 
might define 
my reputation.
Your grace must spark 
holy moments 
of redemptive fire 
so what really matters
remains.

Discipleship, Relationships

, ,