As with generations before us, you have shown yourself to be our Deliverer and Guide. You are our Provider and our Life. Your glory shines through Jesus and by His invitation we have been brought in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Your wisdom seems foolish to people and so they do not partake — even we who call your name Lord are reluctant. Sometimes we obscure your holiness by calling ourselves innocent and by making you small in our minds. Forgive us Lord. May your Spirit convict us all in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment — for, Jesus has come, He has returned to You, and the prince of this world now stands condemned.
When we look to The Cross of Jesus, we recall how the Bread of Heaven was broken for us and how the Blood of the Lamb was poured out for our transgressions. Thank you Lord.
We come to you. Lord have mercy.
When we pray for daily bread Lord, we ask not only for ourselves. We know that humanity was not just created to be consumers. We were created for you and so we live on your life-giving Word. Yet, Lord in our lives we do have trouble. And that trouble flows from our neglect of our your Word and the ever-competing mindset of scarcity.
We lift up to you people under pressure: the people of Yemen, the people of NorthWest China, and the dear men and women of our Province bound up in addiction. Raise up people restrained by your justice; shaped by our equality before Christ the Judge. O Lord, mobilize people to pray, to serve, and to lift up the bruised and the weary rather reject them and snuff them out. Every one is precious to you.
We look to your return and so we say, “Come Lord Jesus.”
We need you now Lord, So we pray as Jesus taught us. (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.
You have done marvellous things. Your Creation speaks of your majesty and skill. Your Cross speaks of your wisdom and love. How could we have known you except that you have drawn us into your communion? Thank you for this grace; you have immersed us into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We rejoice in you. You have loved us with an everlasting love. You have lifted us up out of the pit. You have lightened the loads we were carrying. We adore you and praise you.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! You have spoken words of life to us and quickened our spirits to respond.
Holy, Holy, Holy are you, the LORD God Almighty. May your Sovereignty over all powers and principalities, kingdoms and authorities be known. We hunger and thirst for your righteousness, right here, right now. May your mercy infiltrate our relationships.
Forgive us Lord. We have neglected your Word. We have forgotten your Word. And We have even rebelled against your Word. Create in us a clean heart and renew in us a steadfast spirit that the joy of your salvation may burst forth in new songs.
Fill us with your Spirit, that we may have enter your abundant life.
We need more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We need the power of your Spirit to activate all the gifts in service to your Church and in our neighbourhoods.
We lift up to you our UBC campus family and the Nagata family who recently lost a dear son in an accident; please comfort all who are experiencing the loss of a friend and family member.
We lift up to you the researchers at UBC who are seeking to understand the Covid-19 disease and our responses to it. Grant them wisdom and breakthroughs for the common good.
We are seeking you Lord in all our relationships, so we pray as Jesus taught us. (Join me in praying 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.
You have a boundless supply of love and yet we only dip our toes into its wide expanse. How wide, high, long and deep is the Love of God in Christ for us! You desire to immerse us into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Come Lord Jesus Come. You have brought us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we say Thank you. Thank you for this grace; you are changing our lives.
Come Holy Spirit and pour the love of God into our hearts. Let your Presence flow from the life of Jesus into our whole fellowship. May we persevere in this faith, hope and love.
In view of your great mercy our tight grip on the stuff of earth, our lack of contentment, and our refusal to meet the eyes of the suffering, reveals how small are hearts are and how idolatry still clouds our vision.
Forgive us Lord. Free us us to live in the promise of your abundant life so we can join you in what you are doing in our neighbourhoods.
Loosen our tongues to share your Words of life. Settle our angry hearts so we can welcome the hurting. Open our hands to impart the ministering power of your Spirit.
We lift up to you our brothers and sisters in Hong Kong. As your Body grant them courage and wisdom to be your healing Presence in the city and in every neighbourhood even under duress.
We lift up to you university and college ministry leadership teams seeking to love students well this Fall. Grant them a deep appreciation of your Gospel and activate your spiritual gifts for this season of outreach and ministry.
We lift up to you communities in Canada in need of clean water, sufficient housing, and more houses of hope so that youth grow in their capacity to fulfilling the dreams you have put in them. Raise up men and women who have spent time on their knees with you to spend time and their lives with youth in every community.
We need you Lord, So we pray as Jesus taught us. (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.
For me being American is about a people, a place, and the promises and dreams that were nurtured there. This combination has the potential of nurturing hope.
My favourite places were lived in without much thought in my younger years of their promises. I was just living, enjoying, and experiencing the life I lived as normal. In fact if questioned at the time of this picture (see above) I would have probably thought everyone’s life was like this. But upon reflection I think my sister and I knew even then that the regular weekend and summer trips to camp on land that my mother’s parents had farmed was not everyone’s norm. But once there, we were having a grand time anyway!
Nor was it normal in my neighbourhood at the time to have an immigrant father who solemnly put the flag of the United States in its holder as a reminder of the journey he had taken and the promises he had made and the promises a country had made to him. Even when he was disappointed that these promises would not be fulfilled in the highest court of the land to the degree to which law and merit would have warranted, he continued to be thankful for the freedoms we enjoyed in this place and with these people. I believe my dad treated his movement of appreciation, flying the flag, what some would call patriotism, as a civic act of thankfulness and of hope.
For even when personal advancement and success did not meet all his dreams, my Northern Ireland, Irish Catholic father was grateful for the freedoms he enjoyed with us. These freedoms were measured out in society in such a way that we could pick up the newspaper and read the news and the opinion sections without fear. Where we could attend religious services and assemble with any people and in any church, on any given day as we desired. Where we could access the legal system and seek justice as needed. Where we could vote and generally expect that the elections would be fair. Where we could walk down the street without worrying that our neighbours or the police would track us with guns drawn and fingers on the trigger.
It does not escape me that what I have described above is now being tested and has been tested all along.
But are these aspects of liberty what made me an “American?”
Yes, but not by themselves.
Being American for me has in large part been about a society infused with hope. It’s strange to me but hope seems dangerous. Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, knew his hopes were dangerous to others. But, when the full ideals of our hopes cannot be fully met in this place, people, and it’s promises, I know, even as Roger Williams knew, that we must look elsewhere. Disappointment of hope can be crushing. That’s why I look ultimately look to Jesus and His Kingdom for my hope. “Hope we have as an anchor to the soul.” (Hebrews 6:18-19) I have now lived half my life outside of the United States of America because of the promises and dreams fuelled by Jesus. No matter where one lives or started life the allegiance to Jesus supersedes all others and some allegiances of the soul must be renounced in order to be free in Christ. (If you don’t know Roger Williams, b. 1603 — d. 1683, please get to know him!)
Yet every follower of Jesus has a body and lives in a land so I do carry some tension in my body. Participation in the life of the land can be limited to “our neighbour” but most followers of Jesus I know at least still choose to vote locally and federally as participants in our common governance. Some even choose to participate in politics with the ambition of serving others and not just themselves. I have been thankful for the immense liberty I have enjoyed as an American and now as a Canadian where we celebrated “Canada Day” on July 1st. Both countries share a “freedom construct” that seeks to share liberties broadly. And so I am thankful that I enjoy civilly many of the liberties only once afforded to kings and queens.
Yet, not all people in our lands are getting to participate fully in or enjoy the fruits of our most noble ideals. The blindness and the inequities created by self-interest work against some people and their places. When dreams fuelled by promises remain unrealized hope decays and the accompanying despair can be a crushing burden. It will be replaced by raw self-interest so people are enslaved to false loyalties and governed by fear. That’s what racism and classism does. Every meme and cheap news story becomes a physiological reinforcement for finding identity in what we are against or what we fear rather than in the higher ideals of what we could be for.
I hope for my friends and family in the States that we would insist on creating favourable conditions in which the most noble ideals are extended and even re-formed in all neighbourhoods across America (and Canada) socially and economically. That’s what hope inside our liberty seems to demand.
So thankfully our calendar arrives again with me still living on the 4th of July. To celebrate I had grits for breakfast! Butter, salt, and pepper. Want some? I had coffee with almond milk, no sugar, in an “Ole Miss Civil Engineering” mug given to me by a dear person who prays for me. But does any of that make me an American? Today I’ve been asking myself, “how do I know I’m an American?” What do I carry in my body, beside grits, that tells me I’m an American?
Here’s what I’ve discovered: I carry in my body more than memories, I carry hope.
Pictures: 1. Me and my sister enjoying “the camp.” 2. The Seal of Rhode Island created by Roger Williams.
