Deepest Revulsion

Deepest revulsion ...

As I read The Nightegale.
France, World War 2.
Occupied and deadly.
The Roundup.
All foreign born Jews.
To the East.
To work camps.
To death.

National Security.

A mother and her two children try to escape.
A crossing into the Free Zone.
But gunfire rings out.
People are killed.
They flee into the woods again.
But the daughter has been shot.

And, there, in the woods, Sarah dies.
A child.
A young girl, vibrant and loving and creative and hopeful and brave and kind and sweet and silly and full of life.

A young girl.

Dead.
Nazi bullets.

National Security.

I Believe in God the Father Almighty

I believe in God the Father Almighty ...

Father Almighty?
Mother Almighty?
BoomBah.
Bastion.
Biggie.
Beginning.

Everything.
Nothing.
Something.
All over the place.
In every stick and stone.

Every bird and rat and snake and cow and pig and giraffe and hippo and tortoise and porpoise.
Every human being ... I mean, every.
The crotchety neighbor.
The ragged woman on the corner.
The squalling baby.
The border-crossing farm worker.
The refugee from Syria.
And all the riffraff of life.

And the high and the mighty.
The expensive suit people.
The piled up hair people.
The gold-plated people.
Who think the world owes them their living.
Their place.
The station in life.
Their shitty power, which they love so much.
To flaunt at the country club.
While they compare private planes.
And big yachts.
And the latest insider trading schemes.

God ... whatever.

Something bigger than me, my world, everyone's world.
Bigger than the universe.
Something we can hope in.
Hope for.
Maybe even love, sometimes.

I don't know.

It's good to have something beyond me.
Beyond the strife and struggle of the day.
The year.
The century.
The forever of time and death and life and birth and endings and tears and laughter and beer and whisky and weed and heroine and heroes and hoes and hipsters ...

I believe ... that's a big thing.
God ... bigger still.
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother ... close and kind ... yet forever mystery ... beyond ... fearsome sometimes, like a midnight storm breaking fast and furious upon one's sleep ...

Almighty ... thank you.

I believe.

Prayers at First Church February 5, 2017

Invocation

O LORD our God, deliver us, we pray, from all that would inhibit the power of our hearts to love, to love beyond the usual borders, to love beyond the limits, to love with your love … 

In this hour of worship, dear God, lift our spirits with your Spirit, revive our hope with your promises, and establish our resolve to live and proclaim the gospel - that all are welcomed and all are loved … none left behind, and no one forgotten.

For your glory, and for the healing of the nations, we pray. Amen!

Pastoral Prayer

Blessed Assurance … Amazing Grace … A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, a bulwark never failing … O LORD our God, always beyond our grasp, yet close enough to touch our hearts with life abundant: the sounds of music, words of prayer, deep and penetrating silence, the smooth cheek of a child, the smile of a friend … a good book, a fine movie … peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a glass of cold milk … in such moments,  O God, we sense the loveliness of your presence, and are convinced again, dear God, to keep on keepin’ on, even when the odds are against us.

We give thanks for this day and its gifts … we count our blessings, one by one, and we haven’t time to finish the list … for all that is good and kind.

We pray this day our President and Vice President … we pray for the members of Congress and all who sit upon the bench. May your Spirit be upon them, we pray, and upon our land … and with all the nations of the world, and most especially, dear God, comfort and confirm those who seek peace, who proclaim liberty, who strive for justice … 

Help us all, we pray, to never be silent in the face of lies and deceit … to never give in to hate and slander … to always refuse the allure of war and  the vanity of nationalism … to resist and engage, to march and proclaim, to think and to pray … to lift up a greater vision for our world … a peaceable hope for the future, through understanding and mutual respect … nothing less, O God, than your kingdom come … and your will be done, upon this good earth, as it is in heaven.

We lay before you this day, O God, the prayers of our heart, for loved ones and friends:

For the troubled and weary of soul, O God.

Those beset with illness and pain of body.

Those at the edge life, with death near at hand.

O LORD, bless our church … that we might be strong in the faith and faithful to one another … a conscience to the nation, to our city, and to all who cross these thresholds … 

And for this purpose, and to these great ends, O God, teether our souls to the grace and goodness of Christ, that we never drift into the fog of greed and fear, but that we be steadfast in all things good, in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ, in season and out season, when it’s easy, and when it’s not.

Through Christ our LORD, we pray. Amen!

Prayer of Dedication

Eternal God, we praise you.

We praise you:

With all that we are, and all that we hope to be.

We praise you.

With our lives given unto you.

Our tithes and offerings upon this altar.

And in this giving, and in this living:

We join with women and men of good mind and heart.

All the around the world.

To proclaim life and liberty.

Hope and peace.

Eternal God: we praise you! Amen!

Written by Tom Eggebeen

Fear ...

Fear is a strange thing.

If left unchecked.

So, I try to corral it, manage it.
But cannot send it packing.

So, I try to understand it.
Like an alarm bell going off in the late night.
Down the street.

Something amiss.
Something wrong.
Letting me know.
Pay attention.

The Doors Are Slamming Shut

Can you hear it America?
The Doors.

The Doors are being slammed shut.
And sealed tight.

Executive Orders.
And Christian Power.

The Doors are slamming shut.
One-by-one.

Slammed and sealed.
Guarded by doers of good.

"There will be none of that here," they proclaim.
With giddiness and pride.

"We'll have none of that, for we would be pure."
Purity, as they see it, always demands death.

The death of freedom and thought.
Because thought is the bulwark of freedom.

Kill the thought.
Kill the thinker.

And freedom goes away.
And power rises up.

Beware, godly power.
Beware, the power of purity.

Can you hear it America?
The doors are being slammed shut!

Early, I Rise

Early, I rise ...
Like 3:30 or 4 ...
Thinking: Maybe I should try to
Go back
To sleep.

But the mind whirls.
No sleep until tonight.
Or,
Maybe.
An afternoon nap.

I like the early morning.
Quiet.
Dark.
Coffee.
And then the light begins to seep through the cracks of the night.

Reading.
Coffee.
Prayers.
Coffee.
The day begins.

Early, I rise.

Dogs

Dogs.

Gotta love ‘em.

They eat shit.

They roll in it.

Gotta love ‘em.

Their breath peels paint.

They smell like hell.

Gotta love ‘em.

Here they come.

A-bounding with joy.

Gotta love ‘em.

It’s all joy for them.

To be with us.

Gotta love ‘em.

Their tails wag like mad.

Slobbering kisses.

Gotta love us.

It's in their DNA.

After millennia.

Gotta love us.

When we eat shit.

And smell like hell.

Gotta love us.

Such is grace.

Shit and all.

Gotta love one another.