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Prayer of the People — 24 April 2020

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for giving us the grace of faith. We know we do not live by sight but by faith. Yet, you have given us the eyes of faith to recognize you in the Gospel and in the world around us. Thank you for the delight of residing in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In seeing Jesus in the Gospel we are getting to look into what angles had longed to see. Oh Lord grant us the grace of living full into this mystery revealed! Christ in us — the hope of glory.

Too often Lord our days do not seem all that glorious. Help us love you with all our minds, all our hearts, and all our strength in the course of our daily rhythms: making meals, washing dishes, cleaning spaces, folding laundry, taking up our work, setting our work down, and loving the people closest to us.

Grant us the courage and wisdom required to be curious about people and inquisitive without judgment. May kindness flow from our faces, our speech, and our actions because you are close.

Oh Lord we grieve with the people of Nova Scotia who are reeling from the violence and hate that has visited them. Protect them Lord from the evil one. In the name of Jesus bind up their wounded hearts and cast out the seeds of suspicion and bitterness that have been sown. 

Lord we ask for grace to help those who are suffering through the coronavirus pandemic. Every loss requires its own grace. But Lord, so many around the world are in danger of disease and famine. We retreat from the castles of our greed and ask that you would show us how to love our neighbours well and to support those serving the least of these. But even here in our city and around our campuses people are being oppressed by loneliness and depression. Instruct us in the word that will lift them up.

We are among those who cry out — we would see Jesus.
Oh Lord, we would see Jesus lifted up in His church.

So we pray as He taught us (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.

The Prayer of the People for 24 April 2020 was used the in the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast. If you would like information or encouragement for hosting a House Church during the Coronavirus Pandemic please reach out to me.

Dandelion Discipleship Lessons

When it comes to church planting and student ministry I have always appreciated the dandelion, even if I don’t love it my yard. At least once a year I would pay my kids to clear these from the yard. 10 cents a plant if it included the roots. Some years I was shocked to see the pile of plants they created!

But when it comes to a metaphor, the dandelion is the ultimate for discipleship thinking.

Dandelion Discipleship Lessons

The dandelion will come up anywhere!
This clump is located in a yard full of gravel. 
So it is with disciples of Jesus!

The dandelion is bright and doesn’t mind being seen.
The yellow flower is unmistakeable.
So it is with disciples of Jesus!

The dandelion drives its root down deep.
The longer the plant is given liberty to reside in place, the deeper its roots will go to seek out sustenance.
So it is with disciples of Jesus!

The dandelion is highly committed to multiplication.
One plant can produce thousands of seeds.
So it is with disciples of Jesus!

The dandelion releases its seeds to the wind.
The seeds carry with them everything for doing it all again.
So it is with the Church of Jesus!

Hey — would you like to become a House Church Host? I’d love to connect with you. Email me: craig@craigobrien.ca

Prayer of the People, 17 April 2020

Heavenly Father,

We glorify and honour you. We praise you! This week in the midst of our lives and concerns we have been reminded of the glorious thought that you get the last word. Jesus is raised from the dead and Jesus shall return to set all things right.

You have invited us into the communion of eternal life even now so we get to enjoy your communion daily — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Lord you bridged the greatest divide of all — the deathly divide created by sin; it kept us from seeing you and from fulfilling the purposes for which you created us in all our relationships. But now in Christ Jesus the Resurrected Lord we have tasted our salvation and our hope.

Lord, Strengthen our faith in these days and fortify us for loving people in Your Name.

Lord we are struggling to bridge the digital divide and the divides of hostility and fear created by racism, greed, and the desire to dominate. The Coronavirus pandemic is highlighting the painful realities we have been tempted to treat as normal. Grant us wisdom and Holy Spirit gumption to do something and support your servants and any who seek your righteousness in this season.

We lift up to you cities and regions especially grieved by loss in these days: Wuhan, Italy, Spain, New York City, Ecuador, and Montreal. We lift up to you government officials and the medical teams seeking wisdom and solutions in care and prevention throughout the world.

Oh Lord, may we look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others as people  who have been encouraged and comforted by Jesus Christ. He is our Risen Lord so we pray as He taught us:

(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.

Earth Day with Jesus

I remember learning to read blueprints. They were spread out on our the kitchen table and the four of us stood above them. I studied them meticulously. I was enthralled. Envisioning a house set into the mountain was fun and a family adventure. But then, it all came to a halt. 

A drunk contractor on an excavator toppled trees and tore an angry red strip across the land. My mother and father banned him from the scene. The contractor’s violence uncovered my parents’ values for the land.

The house was never built.

But a finer experience emerged from the pain. A wee camper redeemed from my uncle’s back yard was set back into the woods above the hole. The hole in the side of the mountain became a play-space preserved for years, even as the forest sought to reclaim it. My sister and I spent hours traipsing around this patch of earth. Camping, gardening, and working with my family in this space without the confines of a house was an unexpected gift. Besides learning the joy of smores, I learned to anticipate the fingerprints of God in everything.

The stuff of earth came alive for me.

I have grown up in North America where Christians have not appeared to be on the front lines of “earth” initiatives. The stereotype of Christian capitalistic consumption is built on a narrative of dispensational nihilism: The stuff of earth will burn; it will all dissolve like snow; so, let’s be powerful and eat drink as much as we can and be merry while we can; Jesus is Lord. Really? I don’t really know anyone who believes all this so neatly but it’s attributed to us.

Some Christians may be raving industrialists pressing for the consumption of as much as possible in a most expedient manner. Many have been baptized into Jesus and hope to do good with what they make. Making money is turned into a “holy” pursuit and it’s draped in a perverted form of puritan work ethic. Other Christians who also reside in “Babylon,” have been quietly and steadily pressing for the conservation of the land, air, and water because they see  stewardship as a moral imperative flowing out of a life of loving God and loving people with Jesus.

American Christian discipleship built on the Roman Road, the Bridge Illustration, or even Three Circles has had to labour hard to recover all four dimensions of relational Christianity. The way one comes to Jesus in the Gospel preached seems to create a trajectory of blindspots. Some of us don’t see the earth and the connections between Jesus and what we build, drive, and eat. If Jesus is just good for life-after-death insurance, then we can live as best we see fit on earth secure in the hopes of mansions here and mansions there.

I believe Jesus saves us in all our relationships. A four dimensional and relational discipleship presents salvation as participation in the life of Jesus the King in all our relationships. His kingdom includes the “heavens” and the earth. We live with anticipation for the new heaven and new earth. People, lovingly created by God, have for four relationships — with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth (or the cosmos) as we participate in the communion of God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A thorough reading of the Old and New Testaments presents a cosmic conflict into which Creation is cast; it is finished in Christ at the Cross but is not yet finished in Creation as the agents of the conflict still seek to diminish the glory of God in all creation while God is patient.


Theologies of discontinuity disconcert me. Justification by faith is not meant to be a theology of discontinuity. Yet, if we unhitch any consequential implications for life “here” with Jesus with life “there” with Jesus then what we do and what anyone does in their lifetime doesn’t really matter and a whole slew of passages and parables are trivialized. This disconnection leaves our relationship with the stuff of earth behind. Grace is not a theology of disconnection. Grace in the Gospel is a theology of connection. The Gospel presses us to respond to God by wisely stewarding our common ground. Jesus is good news for all our relationships — our relationship with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth.

It’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It’s been part of my life for almost all of my life. I regularly read some followers of Jesus being critical of and fearful of association with the day. Of course Earth Day matters to folks for a whole lot of reasons and with a whole lot of spiritual frameworks undergirding their affections. That’s how it is when anything belongs in the “commons.” It is not somehow disloyal to Jesus if we care about the earth. Nor is it particularly becoming as a follower of Jesus to treat scientists, farmers, poets, and other concerned residents who care about the Earth as if they are a threat to the knowledge of God because they care.

We don’t have to create a dichotomy between caring for Creation and walking with Jesus as a way of protecting the Gospel. Caring about the earth is not somehow going to ruin our lives with Jesus. A full-bodied discipleship can include theological reflection on our bodies, our work, our food, and the ground we walk upon, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. We do not have to romanticize and place some kind of utopian vision upon the indigenous people’s or their histories in order to care for the earth and each other. I believe we can be realistic about people as people since we are all infected with sinful capacities AND we can celebrate or critique the values within people groups (including my own) that affect creation-care negatively or positively.

If our discipleship and our presentation of the Gospel does not include the stuff of earth I believe we are doing people a dis-service. The Gospel majestically ushers us into the love of God. Now we know God loves. Now we know I am loved. Now we know there is power available to love people. Now we know we can love creation. All these loves matter forever.

Wonder, beauty and mystery are very much connected to the grace of God.
And the grace of God is very much connected to the earth.
Yet, this Earth Day we groan.

The stuff of earth was never meant to bear the weight of our souls. It so easily betrays our misplaced affections and reveals our need to surrender to God. But our surrender need not be made in despair. Rather our surrender may be informed by the resurrection of Jesus. Until He sets all things right, we shall continue to labour for the benefit of all. We do not surrender to death. We do not surrender to thorns and thistles. We do not surrender to greed. Rather we steward our lives and our work under Jesus the Lord so generosity and abundance may abound. Our labour is not in vain. Even our labour to live rightly on the earth in the grace of the Gospel is a exercise in faith. (Suggestion: Read the Gospels again and explore Jesus’ relationship with and stewardship of the stuff of earth.)

So Earth Day — it’s a day of faith for me. It’s a day of yearning with faith for justice — the justice contained in loving our neighbour, the justice proclaimed in the Cross of Christ, the justice of properly stewarding the stuff of earth, the justice anticipated in the restoration of all things in Jesus’ return.

“The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” 1 Corinthians 15:47-49

Prayer of the People, Easter Weekend

Heavenly Father,

We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of all that was required for our fellowship with you in your communion: the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus you have triumphed over the grave. Death has no dominion over you or your church!

We thank you for the speaking word that woke us up to you — for in the moment when you said to us “Let there be light” our lives were changed. Your creative power has brought us hope when we were hopeless, faith when we were stuck in doubt, and love when we were sure we had nothing else to give. Thank you for the Cross and your deep compassion for us. Our deliverance and our righteousness comes only from you.

Lord, we lift up to you people we know who are struggling with the changes brought to their living rooms and their hearts by this pandemic: feeling isolated and lonely, or feeling impatient with the people living with them; worried about finances, unsure of what to do next for work, grieving the loss of a loved one, or worn out by the new effort required by their work. Give us grace Lord. Have mercy on us Oh Lord.

Lord, we lift up to you students pressing in for exams. We lift up to you teachers sorting out how to cause learning. We lift up to you students who worry that their futures may be on hold for a long time. We ask you to meet them. In this season help us all see the beauty and glory of Jesus that we might entrust all our worries for tomorrow in His hands.

We entrust our lives to you and so we expect that we will have courage to love as you love. And so we pray as Jesus taught us.

(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.